Future Or Fantasy
by Basic Trainer
Summary: There are many things in life beyond a person's understanding, this is one of those things. Naruto went to bed as the Hokage and woke up as a twelve year old in a forest, was it all a dream, a Genjutsu or time travel? One way or another he was going to find out.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first attempt at writing for Naruto so please be kind.**

 **I want to thank a friend for helping me write this and even though she'll try to kill me for saying this I name her as a co-writer. She doesn't actually do any of the writing but she's beta'd, given me advice and given me ideas to write about.**

 **Thank you , I dedicate this chapter to you.**

Future or Fantasy

Back To The Beginning

Naruto sighed happily as he shrugged off his cloak and hung it up by the door.

"Papa!" He heard a small, excited voice say behind him, turning around he smiled and scooped up his daughter as she ran into his arms.

"Shouldn't you be in bed by now, Himawari-chan?" He asked playfully, kissing her cheek. Himawari blushed and put her head against his shoulder, hiding the blush on her cheeks that made her whisker marks stand out.

"I wanted to say goodnight to you Papa." She mumbled into him as Naruto carried her to her room. He tucked her into bed and kissed her forehead.

"Goodnight sweetie."

"Goodnight Papa." The little girl yawned as her eyelids fluttered closed. Naruto quietly left the room, as he passed his son's room he looked in to see Boruto fast asleep.

A pair familiar arms wrapped around Naruto's waist and a light kiss was placed on his cheek.

"Welcome home Naruto-kun, you're later than usual. Is everything okay?" Hinata asked, Naruto turned and returned the hug adding a quick kiss to his wife's lips.

"Everything's fine Hinata-chan, it just took a little longer to finish signing off the missions reports than usual. Shikamaru complains about everything being troublesome but he's just as bad, lazy slave driver." The couple took one last look at their children before going to bed themselves.

 _"_ _Release!"_

Naruto opened his eyes and found himself in a clearing, it took him a couple of seconds to recognise it as Team 7's old training ground.

"What the hell?" He said before jerking in surprise, his voice was higher in pitch then it should've been. Honestly it sounded quite annoying, he raised a hand to his throat and caught a glimpse of bright orange out of the corner of his eye. Looking down Naruto saw he was dressed in his old orange jumpsuit, quickly stripping off his forehead protector he stared at his own reflection. He was 12 again, had he been caught in a Genjutsu? No, couldn't have been, it felt so real, he could still feel his arm draped across Hinata's chest and smell the slight lavender scent of her hair.

Naruto was so pre-occupied with trying to work out what was happening to him, he didn't notice the slight shake of leaves as something left the area.

He re-tied his Hitai-ate and started to pace around, denial running circuits around his mind, Boruto and Himawari weren't real, were they? He'd lost Jiraiya, was he alive again? Had he married Hinata? Was the war real or was his entire life just some cruel dream? Naruto tried multiple times to dispel a Genjutsu but to no avail as he still found himself in the clearing, eventually he stopped and accepted that this was reality. Maybe this was a second chance, maybe he could change how the future turned out. Saving Jiraiya and Neji would definitely change how things played out. Stopping Sasuke from leaving, making sure everyone trained harder, with his future knowledge he could make everyone stronger and maybe stop the war before it even began.

Naruto's eyes grew wild and a feral smile crossed his lips, it was more than the war he could stop. Orochimaru's attack during the Chunin exams, the death of the Sandaime Hokage, even further back stopping Haku and Zabuza from dying would mean that Kabuto wouldn't be able to resurrect them during the war, he could send word to the other Jinchūriki so they knew what was coming for them.

Running a hand through his hair Naruto looked around the clearing, he knew where he was but now he just had to work out when he was and what was actually happening. A scream broke the silence that surrounded him and he was running towards it before it even died out.

 _'_ _That was Sakura.'_ He thought as he dashed through the trees finding her a minute later standing still with a glazed look in her eyes. _'She's young again too.'_ Naruto's brain made a connection about what was happening and he realised when he was. He was taking Kakashi's bell test again, Team 7 had just formed and Sakura was caught in a Genjutsu. He spawned a handful of Kage Bunshin and sent them to find Sasuke while he released Sakura from the Genjutsu.

Sakura blinked as she came out of the jutsu and her eyes darted around frantically, she mumbled about Sasuke being hurt and started to hyperventilate. Naruto waited a minute to see it she was going to snap out of it but when it became apparent that she needed help he grabbed her face and forced her to look at him.

"Sakura-chan, snap out of it. Kakashi-sensei put you in a Genjutsu, whatever you saw wasn't real." He kept his voice calm, strong and level so the pinkette had something solid to focus on. Her breathing slowly steadied and her eyes rested on his face.

"N-Naruto?" She said unsteadily. "Where's Sasuke-kun?" Naruto rolled his eyes, of course that's the first thing she'd ask.

"I've sent some clones to find him, if we're going to get those bells from Kakashi-sensei we need to work together. That's the point of the test, to see if we can work as a team."

"How do you know that?"

"Just trust me." Naruto snapped, pausing as he created more clones. "We haven't got the time to play around." He turned to his clones. "You know where to go and use force if you have too."

"You got it boss." The clones said in unison before running off into the forest.

"What was that about?" Sakura asked.

"Teme popped my clones, after they dug him out of the ground."

"But how…?"

"Anything my clones see, I learn when they dispel." Naruto sat on the grass with his legs crossed. "Give me a nudge when the Teme gets here."

"What are you going to do?"

"Meditate, I need a minute to think." Naruto closed his eyes and dropped into his mindscape, appearing in front of the Kyuubi's cage. "Hey, Kurama!" The Nine Tails looked out through the bars of the cage. "Did you get caught in that Genjutsu thing too?"

 **I did, I saw everything you saw Gaki. I don't know why we saw what we did but if it was a Genjutsu it wasn't a normal one. If that was a vision of the future we need to try and stop it from happening. The first thing to do is actually see if it was a vision of the future or not, we need to test it with more than just this test.** The Fox said.

"So me knowing your name isn't proof enough?" Naruto asked with a smirk.

 **Don't get smart with me brat.** Kurama growled. **That does raise a valid point though, there isn't any other way you could know my name. I want more proof before I believe any of this though.** Naruto nodded and was about to leave when the Kyuubi spoke again. **You have the mental experience from that vision for your jutsu but not the physical experience, stamina or control to use them properly, not yet. You have a lot of training ahead of you.** With that said Kurama laid his head on his front legs and went to sleep while expelling Naruto from his mindscape.

Naruto opened his eyes as Sakura shook him, taking a quick look around he saw his clones walking into the clearing carrying a bound and gagged Sasuke. Naruto hesitated for a couple of seconds seeing both of his teammates as kids again, it was un-nerving but it was probably something he was going to have to get used too. He pushed that feeling to the back of his mind, it was something he could deal with later.

"Naruto, what's going on with your eyes? They've changed colour." Naruto snapped out of his thoughts and looked at her in confusion so Sakura took a small compact mirror out of her pouch, handing it to Naruto. She was right, his eyes were on longer blue but a pale turquoise and his pupils had stretched slightly, but it quickly faded away as he watched and his eyes returned to normal. _'Sage mode? No, not completely that's something else I'll have to work on._ '

"Don't worry about it Sakura-chan." Standing up Naruto passed the mirror back to Sakura and thanked his clones before dispelling them, turning to face the last Uchiha.

"Alright, listen up Teme. If we're going to pass this test then we need to work together." Naruto said taking the gag out of Sasuke's mouth.

"Pft, I don't need anyone's help. I touched one of the bells and…" Sasuke started before Naruto interrupted.

"And that got you buried chin deep in the ground. We work together, we get the bells and we pass the test."

"There's only two bells Dobe, how are we meant to pass if one of us doesn't get a bell?"

"The whole point of the test is to work together." Naruto spawned a few clones and sent them to distract Kakashi. "I have a plan so…"

"Like I'd listen to any plan you have, we're bound to fail if we listen to you." Sasuke smirked "And what was going on with your eyes?" Naruto had had enough and stuffed the gag back into Sasuke's mouth.

"My eyes aren't you concern Teme." He turned to face his other teammate. "Alright then, looks like it's just you and me Sakura-chan."

"I don't know Naruto, Sasuke-kun is the best there is, we'll need him if we're going to do this." Sakura said quietly, scuffing her foot on the ground. Naruto let out a frustrated breath, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I forgot you used to be this bad." He muttered under his breath. "Right new plan." Naruto faced Sasuke again. "You're going to work with us otherwise I will tie you to a post in the middle of the village, strip you down, cover you in honey and tomato slices then send a message to each and every fangirl you have in the village saying 'First come, first serve.' with your location on it." Naruto grinned as Sasuke's eyes widened, taking a second to look over his shoulder Naruto saw Sakura's face had turned bright red and her eyes had glazed over. "All the pranks I've ever done combined are nothing compared to what I could actually do, so do we have a deal?"

Sasuke hesitated as he thought about Naruto's threat, he knew that the Dobe had caused a lot of problems over the years with his pranks and outrun ANBU while escaping. Sasuke searched and saw no deception in his statement. He gave Naruto single nod, the blonde nodded in return.

"Good, now that's sorted out. Here's the plan." Naruto snapped Sakura out of her daze and while he untied Sasuke he explained what he had in mind.

A few minutes later

Kakashi was stood in the middle of the training ground where the test had started, he continued to read his book looking like he didn't have a care in the world. Naruto's clones had been an unexpected amusement, the way they fought was different than it was when the test started. They were still easily dealt with of course but it was a pleasant change nonetheless. A low rustle caused Kakashi to glance up from his book, seeing Naruto stroll towards him and lean against the tree he'd been hanging from not too long ago.

"Are you giving up Naruto?"

"This the first time you've read that book?" Naruto replied ignoring the question.

"No, I've read this quite a few times as a matter of fact."

"Want to know what happens in the next book?"

"And how would you know that? These books have a…required reading age." Naruto just smirked and henged into Sasuke.

"Everyone in the village is willing to 'bend' a few rules for the last Uchiha. Those books are predictable too, girl meets guy, guy says a few cheesy chat up lines, they have a passionate night of love, the end. I do know the name of the next book though."

"Of course you do, now do you mind, I'm getting to a good part." Kakashi lowered his eye to the book when he saw Naruto disappear in a cloud of smoke. _'Another Kage Bunshin, what is he up too?'_ More rustling around the clearing drew Kakashi's attention, from the trees and bushes came a lot of figures. As he cast his gaze over them Kakashi saw that most of the figures were Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura but not as they were now. These figures were what his team might look like when they were older, he saw an older Sakura with shorter hair and a blue diamond on her forehead standing with a long haired Sasuke and shorter haired Naruto. Another group looked closer to his team's current ages, mid-teens most likely Sasuke wearing a loose pale purple top and blue pants with a large purple rope tied around his waist, a long sword at his back, Sakura wore a top the same colour as her dress along with an apron skirt and black shorts, a pair of black gloves on her hands and Naruto still wore an orange jumpsuit but with black parts added to it, the cloth of his headband was now black and longer than before. There were at least ten teams and more kept appearing, all different ages and appearances.

There was a team wearing those Kami-awful jumpsuits that Gai was so enamoured with, complete with matching bowl-cut hairstyle and thick eyebrows, another team were dressed like barbarians Sakura carried a large and lethal looking axe, a third team looked like Kakashi gravity defying hair and slanted Hitai-ate included. A team with shining bald heads, a chibi team, babies, kids and one with their genders reversed. Kakashi supressed a laugh seeing a team that looked like a magic act, Naruto in a tuxedo, top hat and cape, Sakura as his glamorous assistant and Sasuke laying in a box as Naruto cut him in half.

The silver-haired Jonin didn't have time to register any others as the teenage Naruto in orange and black charged in with a spin kick, the Copy Ninja dodges with easy only to hear a familiar shout coming from his Genin.

"Triple Dynamic Entry!" The team that looked like Gai attacked together, slamming three flying kicks into Kakashi's back only for him to disappear in a puff of smoke, leaving a log in his place that was soon turned into splinters.

The army of clones immediately went on high alert and looked around for Kakashi, finding him leaning against sat on one of the training stumps still reading his book. A team dressed like the Legendary Sannin, Sasuke as Orochimaru, Naruto as Jiraiya and Sakura as Tsunade, edged forward as a second team wearing Samurai armour, Naruto predictably in orange with a nine-tailed fox snarling on the helm with three swords on each hip and three more on his back, Sasuke in purple and grey with the Uchiha symbol displayed proudly on his chest piece and a single sword at his left hip while Sakura wore red and white armour with a flowing robe embroidered with sakura blossoms and a short sword on the small of her back.

Samurai Naruto slashed with two of his swords which Kakashi dodged with ease by leaning back before rolling to the side to evade a drop heel from Jiraiya Naruto. Once he was on his feet again Kakashi had to start weaving his way around attacks from both Naruto's before guiding them into position so that with one quick duck they hit each other and dispelled in a puff of smoke but from the smoke came the Sasuke clones. They were dealt with in a similar way to the Naruto clones, Samurai Sasuke sliced through Orochimaru Sasuke as the Sannin clone attacked with a spear-hand strike punching through the armour when Kakashi shunshined out of the way. The Copy Ninja quickly dealt with the Sakura clones with a swift chop to the back of the head as he appeared behind them.

Next came a team that came at Kakashi were dressed like member of ANBU, they appeared around him with sword's drawn and stabbed straight into his body but once again the Copy Ninja replaced himself with a log and stood on top of it while the ANBU team tried to pull their swords out. Three rapid fire kicks dealt with them and another three took care of a team with the three most well known Dōjutsu Sasuke appropriately with a fully matured Sharingan, Naruto with the purple ripple patterned eyes of the Rinnegan and Sakura having the ghostly pale eyes of the Byakugan complete with the bulging veins.

Kakashi saw the rest of the clone army including teams wearing the headbands of other lands, a team with cat ears and tails, some dressed a popular gaming characters, puppets and thugs another part of the army held clones wearing clothing for different sports, different occupations, the other Genin from their graduating class. His sole visible eye gazed over a team wearing black cloaks with red clouds and a visible flinch ran through his body went he saw a team where Sasuke looked like his father, Sakura looked like her mother and Naruto was the Yondaime Hokage. _Does Naruto know who his father is or is it just a coincidence?_ Kakashi shook his head to clear it, there'd be time to deal with that question later.

He sighed and put his book away as the army started closing in. "Looks like I'll be needing both hands of this. Such a shame, I really was getting to a good part." Kakashi leapt high into the air, flipping through a series of handseals stopping on a Tiger sign.

" **Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu.** " Kakashi blew an enormous sphere of flames from his mouth. The attack hit the ground and spread out, crashing into the Kage Bunshin and dispelling them. From the corner of his eye Kakashi saw Sasuke launch out of a nearby tree, throwing shuriken and controlling them with ninja wire. A quick Kawarimi placed the Jonin out of range of the shuriken but he didn't get a second of respite as Sakura jumped out of a bush with a punch. Not seeing any danger Kakashi simply sidestepped the punch but when Sakura's fist hit the ground there was a resounding crash followed by a small tremor and a cloud of dust. Flipping out of the dust cloud Kakashi was met by Naruto lunging at him with chakra swirling in his palm.

 _'_ _It can't be, that almost looks like the Rasengan.'_ Kakashi thought as he retreated from the attack, noticing that the blonde's eyes were different but his attention was focussed mostly on the attack in Naruto's hand. Naruto's attack even though it was backed up by his partial Sage Mode was unstable and exploded in a flash of light and dust. When the light faded Sasuke and Sakura jogged over to where Naruto was laying, in a depression in the ground, dirt covering his clothes, cuts on his exposed skin and tears in his clothes.

"Naruto, are you alright?" Sakura asked looking down at him.

"I-I think so." Naruto replied unsteadily as he started to sit up before dropping flat to the ground again. "Actually, I might need a minute."

"Did you get him?" Sasuke asked, searching the clearing for signs of Kakashi.

"No, no he didn't." Kakashi replied, sitting on a tree branch a few feet above them once more reading his book. "I will admit, he came close though. I'd ask if you wanted to try again but…" The alarm he'd set for noon rang out. "…your time is up."

"I guess we failed then." Sakura said sadly.

"No, you pass."

"What?"

"You. Pass. The true purpose of this test is to see whether you could work together as a team, and you proved that you could. Congratulation, you all pass. We are now officially Team 7."

Sakura stared at Kakashi for a few seconds before jumping into the air, cheering happily, Sasuke simply smirked and Naruto lay in the depression with a smile on his face. Although he gave the impression of being entirely focussed on his book Kakashi was actually keeping an eye on Naruto, due to everything he'd heard the blonde should've been shouting like a loon and running around with the boundless energy he was known for. Instead he simply lay on the ground smiling but there was confusion in his eyes, almost like he was lost and couldn't work-out how he'd ended up here. There was the matter of the Rasengan and whatever that was with his eyes, Kakashi would've sworn that it was something like the Sage Mode that Jiraiya-Sama possessed but that was impossible…wasn't it? Add to that Sakura's earth shaking punch reminiscent of Tsunade-Sama and things were beginning to look suspicious.

"I must say that was quite an impressive plan, which one of you came up with it?" He asked, Sasuke looked away while Sakura pointed at Naruto. "Really? Can I ask how you came up with that idea Naruto?" The blonde didn't move from where he lay, just breathing steadily before pushing himself upright.

"I didn't think we'd have a chance on our own so I made a little help. It would've been boring to just see the three of us over and over again so I thought I'd spice it up a little. What did you think?"

"I found the team dressed like me to be flattering although I'm more interested that attack you tried to hit me with, where did you learn to do that?"

"What? A ninja can't read? I like the Yondaime and read about his technique, I tried to use it. I think I messed it up though."

"Of course you messed it up Dobe, the Yondaime didn't blow himself up every time he used it did he?" Sasuke muttered.

"And Sakura's punch?" Kakashi asked, ignoring Sasuke for the moment.

"Naruto said it was a technique he'd heard an old lady uses." Sakura said, supplying an answer. Kakashi nodded lazily, put his book away, slipped out of the tree and stood in front of his team.

"I think we've all had enough fun for one day, we'll meet tomorrow morning at Hokage Offices for our first mission. Until then the rest of the day is your own." With that Kakashi disappeared in a swirl of leaves, leaving the Genin of the newly formed Team 7 alone in the training ground.

"Sasuke, do you want to go and…" Sakura started before she was interrupted.

"No." The Uchiha said as he turned and walked out of the training ground, Sakura following at his heels. As soon as they were out of sight Naruto dropped back on to the ground, his mind racing now that his adrenaline was wearing out.

 _What's going on? Last thing I remember is going to bed and now I'm back at the beginning._ His hands grasped his head tugging at his hair. Once more he tried to dispel a Genjutsu but again it failed and the pain he could feel from the chakra burns on his hand told him this wasn't some sort of dream. Panic started to set in as his breaths shortened while speeding up, he was hyperventilating. Naruto closed his eyes and forced himself to calm down, he did what he could to remember the meditation techniques from Mount Myōboku and eventually he managed to get a hold of himself. When he opened his eyes again Naruto was looking at the familiar cage doors that held the Kyūbi.

 **You need to get a hold of yourself brat, that was a reasonable excuse you gave the cyclops but he's suspicious now. You have to be more careful from now on until we know what's happening. Raise too much suspicion and you'll be having a one to one with that scar faced sociopath. I don't want anything to do with that sadist and his mind games.**

"Alright, alright, I get it. I'll be careful, this is just…it's a lot to deal with."

 **Then deal with it, work out your story now and stick to it. Make sure you don't forget the details either.**

"I said I got it, stupid fox. Give me some time and I'll figure something out. Now send me back so I can take some aspirin, all this is giving me a headache."

Kurama just huffed and with a blast of hot breath Naruto was sent out of his mindscape. Opening his eyes, Naruto found himself staring at a clear blue sky. He continued to lay there, just watching the sky for a few minutes until he rolled onto his shoulder and flicked his body so he became airborne and landed on his feet. Crossing his arms behind his head Naruto slowly walked to his apartment, ignoring the glares from the civilians as he went.

He had a lot of thinking and planning to do.

 **That's the end for now.**

 **Let me know what you think.**

 **Until Next Time**

 **Basic Trainer**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's the second chapter of Future or Fantasy, I know readers of my Pokémon story are hoping for an update to that but I got the idea for this chapter and had to get it done.**

 **With that said I'll be starting the next chapter of Champion of Champions and get it out as soon as I can.**

 **Now on to the story.**

Chapter 2

Starting Over

Sunlight poked through a gap in the curtains and shone right on to Naruto's closed eyes as his alarm clock rang out in the silence. Frowning as he started to awaken, he found that he'd fallen asleep while working again. Naruto was sat cross-legged on his bed leaning against the headboard, pieces of paper and scrolls strewn around him covered in notes about what he could remember about the future as best he could remember it.

The blonde stretched, grunting as his joints popped, loosening his muscles after spending the night in one uncomfortable position. Facing him on the opposite wall was the Konohagakure symbol poster that had been above his bed, although it was turned over with a timeline scrawled on to it. Granted, it wasn't the most ingenious hiding place for something so important but it was the only place he had that he could do it because he wouldn't be able to remember all the details he was writing down. Various sections of the timeline were highlighted to signify where he could try and change the future such as helping or warning the Third Hokage against Orochimaru, preventing Asuma's death and stopping Pein before he had a chance to destroy the village.

There were other sections of the timeline with question marks around them, some because he couldn't remember the detail of what happened properly like his battle with Orochimaru at Tenchi Bridge, others were to question whether he should really change anything, such as Sasuke getting the Curse Mark. It was true that the Curse Mark caused a lot of problems due to how it twisted Sasuke's mind, though Naruto had doubts about the extent of the twisting, it also gave Sasuke a level of strength that got them out of a few dangerous situations. Sasuke leaving the village was another section question marked as to whether to change it or not, Naruto knew he'd promised Sakura to bring Sasuke back but he had some wiggle room with that because he didn't specify when he would bring Sasuke back.

Shutting off the alarm clock Naruto packed the papers and scrolls away, flipped the poster around to hide the timeline and went to shower. It had been a couple of weeks since he'd come too in the clearing during the bell test and was fairly convinced he'd travelled in time but Kurama wasn't, reasoning that a jutsu like that would've been too complicated for them to have full memories of what would happen and wouldn't have been possible in the first place. To prepare for the future whether it was what they remembered or something else entirely Naruto had started to take his training even more seriously, he'd taken to waking up at four or five in the morning to train for a couple of hours before getting ready for the day. He'd even managed to get Kakashi to start teaching them Tree-Walking under the guise of helping with chakra control, Sakura once again got it first time with Naruto seeming to get a hang of it a couple of days later as he kept pace with Sasuke. Truthfully Naruto had completed the exercise not long after Sakura but remembering Sasuke's superiority complex he held back so he didn't send the Uchiha off to the dark side sooner. The only tough part of their training sessions was pretending to be learning the team formations again and fighting his reflex to get into position with practiced ease. If he had to go through manji formation one more time he'd go become a missing-nin.

As he stood in the shower Naruto took the time to fix his mind into the way it was when he got his Hitai-ate from Iruka-Sensei, behaving like an idiot again was grating on his nerves but it had to be done Kakashi-Sensei was suspicious enough already after how he'd changed during the bell test. Turning the water off and quickly drying himself Naruto changed into a pair of baggy grey shorts and a black vest, strapping weights on his legs and forearms before leaving his apartment to go on a jog around the outskirts of the village.

The light jog gave Naruto time to let his mind wander, the thought that came to him first was the dream he'd been having constantly since the bell test. It was what he remembered about the future, being the Hokage and married with two children but Hinata and Sakura kept swapping places as his wife whenever he blinked, Boruto looked the same but Himawari would change between the pale eyes and dark lavender hair of her mother to the green eyes and soft pink hair of Sakura. Shaking his head Naruto put the dreams down to his childhood crush on Sakura but deep down he knew the real reason, even though he'd given his heart to Hinata a small part still longed for Sakura and the nature of a few of the dreams made Naruto feel like he'd cheated on Hinata.

The thought of his children made Naruto slow his pace, he could knew in his heart he would see them again but would they be the same as he remembered? As he started to feel depressed Naruto's optimism pushed it back, filling him with the belief that everything would be just the way it had been, possibly better. His pubescent mind conjured up an image of how things could be better involving both Hinata and Sakura, Naruto closed his eyes and slapped his cheeks to rid himself of that thought and to cover the redness of his cheeks. Due to having his eyes shut he didn't see a tree root and tripped over it but is fall was halted by someone grabbing the back of his vest before he hit the ground. Opening his eyes he was greeted by a pair of legs encased in green spandex and orange legwarmers, it was Might Guy, Naruto had seen him a few times during the last couple of weeks and introduced himself to Guy and Lee just in case he slipped up and called them by name before he was supposed to know it.

"I see the fires of your youth are too strong for your feet to keep up, five hundred laps around the village should put an end to that. Come Naruto, let us begin." Naruto rolled his eyes before looking up at the person holding him by his collar. A thought came to Naruto's mind as he realised he had a golden opportunity in front of him.

"Hi, Guy-Sensei. I was thinking about how to train later, do you have any ideas?" He asked, getting his balance as Guy released his vest.

"Shouldn't you be asking Kakashi for help instead of another Jonin?"

"I would but Kakashi-Sensei is more focused on Sasuke than me and Sakura. That's why I thought I'd ask you for some tips on how to get stronger."

"Ah, the passion for improvement. I see that I am a better teacher then my eternal rival." Guy grinned and a twinkle of light shone from his teeth. "You may be one of Kakashi's students but I will aid you in your endeavor to become stronger, both I and my protégé Rock Lee shall make you all that you can be with the POWER OF YOUTH!" Naruto winced at the sudden escalation in volume but smiled.

"Thanks Guy-Sensei. When should I find you to start training?"

"Why wait? We shall begin right the moment, keep pace and follow me to the training ground." With that said Guy took off at top speed, leaving a trailing dust cloud and a dumbfounded Naruto in his wake.

"What did I just get myself into?" Naruto muttered, dragging a hand down his face before running after Guy glad that he already knew where the Jonin liked to train with his team.

Arriving at the training ground a few minutes later Naruto saw Lee standing in front of a tree trunk practicing his round kicks while Guy was stood at the side watching, occasionally giving out pieces of advice.

"Ah Naruto, you've arrived. Allow me to introduce my prized student, Rock Lee. You met only briefly before." Guy said putting a hand on Lee's shoulder once the Genin had turned around.

"I am pleased to meet you Naruto, I am Konohagakure's beautiful green beast Rock Lee." Lee held out a thumbs up and smiled, a twinkle shining off his teeth.

"Hey Lee, can I ask a question?"

"Why of course Naruto, I will do my very best to answer it and if I cannot then I will do five hundred kicks, if I cannot do that then…"

"Alright Lee, there's no need for that. I just want to know how you and Guy-Sensei get your teeth to do that twinkle thing." Lee looked to Guy before turning back to Naruto.

"I'm sorry Naruto, that is a closely guarded secret of Guy-Sensei's, I can't answer your question so I will now do 500 kicks and…" Naruto tuned Lee's voice as he looked at Guy, hoping for an answer.

"Naruto, if you truly wish to train with myself and Lee of a morning then I have something to give you." Guy reached into his flak jacket, Naruto already knew what was coming as Guy pulled out a green jumpsuit. "This gorgeous suit is specially made so it breathes, is durable and always fits perfectly. It is also guaranteed to increase the results of your training by 50%." Naruto took the jumpsuit and hung it on a nearby branch, remembering that Jiraiya had burnt his previous one to ashes during their training journey.

"Thank you Guy-Sensei, I'll wear it next time. So where do I start?"

"Well, first I need to see what you're capable of." Guy dropped into a fighting stance. "Don't hold back, come at me with everything you've got." Naruto nodded and widened his stance, bringing his guard up and took a second to think, he couldn't go at Guy with the Frog Kata as he'd know it wasn't something a new Genin would be able to do. That just left the academy taught taijutsu, he knew that he wouldn't be able to touch Guy but he might be able to catch him by surprise. Naruto smirked and charged in, stopping just short of the Jonin and rolling to the side, producing three clones as he did. The clones jumped at Guy and were dispelled easily with a single punch, out of the resulting smoke came Naruto. Guy just grabbed his ankle and held him upside down.

"Really Naruto, being a student of Kakashi's I expected more from you. Has by rival really been so sloppy and not bothered to train you at all?" Naruto just grinned as a volley of kunai came from the surrounding trees, slamming the heel of his other foot into Guy's wrist allowing Naruto's ankle to be released so he could backflip out of the way.

"Leaf Hurricane!" Guy shouted, jumping into his signature spin kick knocking the kunai away either with his kick or the resulting wind of his spin. A horde of Naruto's clones leapt from the tree branches and charged at Guy with a battle cry. The Jonin responded in kind and set about dispelling the clones with ease, once they were all gone Guy turned to see Naruto stood opposite him waiting. "Come now Naruto, let me feel the power of your Youth." Guy ran at Naruto with the blonde meeting him halfway, they exchanged blows with none of Naruto's getting close to passing Guy's guard while the Jinchūriki deflected as many of Guy's punches as he could.

 **Let me help you brat.** Kurama said, getting bored of the display Naruto was putting on.

 _No, if your chakra's felt then that's the end for both of us._ He replied and as he did Guy landed a punch to Naruto's gut following it up with a round elbow to the side of the head sending Naruto sprawling.

He looked up just in time to see to see Guy and rolled away to avoid a drop heel, scrambling to his feet to block the follow up round kick which sent him skidding across the ground while staying on his feet. Seeing Guy run in for another punch, Naruto turned his back on the Jonin and felt the breeze from the punch as it passed by his ear. Sliding a leg back, Naruto used chakra to stick to the ground as he grabbed Guy's outstretched arm and moved the rest of his chakra to muscles and threw Guy over his shoulder. The Jonin jumped with the throw, spinning in the air and pulling his arm out of Naruto's grasp while lashing out with another round kick catching Naruto in the side of the head.

Naruto flew through the air and landed in a heap on the ground, he lay still for a few seconds before starting to push himself up but his arms failed him and he dropped to the ground. Guy relaxed his stance and started walking towards Naruto when he dispelled in a large puff of smoke.

"A Shadow Clone?!" Guy exclaimed as the real Naruto jumped from his hiding place in a nearby tree and came down with an axe kick.

 **What do you know, your plan might actually work.** Kurama muttered, distracting Naruto as Guy acted on reflex attacking with a high side kick, catching Naruto under the chin. Naruto reversed course, slammed into the tree he'd just leapt from and fell to the ground hitting every branch on the way down. Landing with a thud, Naruto blacked out. When he opened his eyes he was staring up at the pipes that surrounded Kurama's cage, sitting up he glared at the Fox.

"That was your fault."

 **I know.** Kurama chuckled as he sent a sliver of chakra to deal with the concussion before it fully took hold. **Now get out of here so I can keep repeating that image without seeing your pitiful pouting face.** Kurama then ejected Naruto from his mindscape.

Opening his eyes again Naruto saw the concerned faces of Guy and Lee, slowly getting to his feet with Guy's help Naruto sagged and leant against the tree.

"I'm okay, just give me a minute for the ringing in my ears stops." Naruto said.

"That was an impressive Shadow Clone you made Naruto. How was it able to withstand my attacks for so long?" Guy asked.

"I used most of my chakra on it. I thought that if I used more chakra on a single clone then it would last longer than my clones normally do, I'm actually surprised it lasted that long against you."

"And what about the other clones you made?" Lee added.

"They were made from the chakra I had left, I didn't know if they would've lasted long enough for me to make the stronger one. They probably would've died from a graze."

"I thought they looked a little flimsy." Guy said, "I am disappointed in you though Naruto."

"That's why I asked for your help Guy-Sensei…" Naruto started until Guy held up a hand.

"I'm not talking about your fighting ability, I told you to come at me with everything you had but you held something back. The way you moved showed that you were trying to disguise your actual fighting style and that you are more skilled then you want people to believe. If I saw this then I have no doubt that my rival Kakashi saw it too, why hide your true skill Naruto?"

Naruto fought the urge to slap himself in the face, he should've known that Guy would call him out on his taijutsu ability. Ignoring Kurama's cackling laughter, he sighed and answered Guy's question.

"Like I said earlier, Kakashi-Sensei is more focused on Sasuke then me and Sakura so I've been doing my own training, I've been fighting longer then every other Genin in my class. Every time someone had a problem it was blamed on me and the other kids would just start hitting me for no reason, eventually I decided that I wasn't going to take it and started fighting back. Truthfully I'm not a martial artist like you and Lee, I'm a brawler. If I need to I'll take a few hits so that I can do what I need to do. I thought you'd only help me train if I used taijutsu and that's why I tried to disguise how I normally fight. I'm sorry Guy-Sensei."

Guy studied Naruto for a moment before nodding.

"I accept your apology Naruto and while I don't like the fact you tried to deceive me, I will help you get stronger. I sense the power of youth is strong in you and I want to see just how brightly it will shine." Guy slapped a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Come Naruto, let us begin."

The next two hours had Naruto running laps, repeating offensive and defensive combos, sparring with Lee and basic exercises such as sit ups, to increase his strength and flexibility, but to the insane number that Lee and Guy set for themselves. After finishing a hundred press ups out of a set of 800, Naruto collapsed panting heavily as he told Guy that he needed to go and get ready for the day as he was meeting his team at eight. Lending a little of Kurama's chakra Naruto slowly pushed himself up and staggered towards his apartment, taking the jumpsuit with him. He had promised to wear it for the next training session and he never went back on his word, that was his ninja way after all.

Thanks to Kurama accelerating his healing Naruto was walking properly again by the time he was halfway home, letting Naruto review what he had just learnt when something occurred to him.

 _"_ _Hey, Kurama I've got a question for you."_ He thought to the Bijuu.

 **What is it?**

 _"_ _How are we able to talk?"_

 **You think what you want to say and I hear it, simple as that. Now let me get some sleep.**

 _"_ _I don't mean like that, I mean it was at the end of the mission to the Wave that I started to hear you. If we've travelled back in time…_

 **Which we haven't.** Kurama interrupted. **I keep telling you that's impossible.**

 _Anyway, IF we have shouldn't the seal still be fully closed?_

 **…** **.**

 _Did you hear me?_

 **I heard you.**

 _So, what's the answer?_

 **Just let me think…All the emotion you felt from whatever we went through might've been enough to crack the seal or the seal was already weakening and it's just a coincidence.**

 _Hmm, I guess that could be it but something just doesn't feel right._

 **You don't have to tell me that brat, now let me sleep.** Naruto cut the connection between himself and Kurama, stopping in the middle of the street and looking over his shoulder. There was a feeling, like an itch that told him someone was watching him, he could see the shopkeepers opening their stores, a few civilians making their way to their various jobs and some people going home after a late night. They all glared at him but over the years that was something that Naruto could ignore, like background noise, this feeling though was something different. It wasn't the usual hateful gaze he'd feel, this felt more like an inspection, like someone was studying him. Scanning the street and rooftops around him Naruto couldn't find anything but he was sure there was someone out there watching him.

 **What have you stopped for brat?**

 _Nothing, I might be going paranoid from hiding all this stuff._

 **You're a ninja, there's no such thing as paranoid.**

 _You've got that right._ Naruto chuckled and carried on walking.

He arrived at his apartment and stopped, laying on his mat was a scroll with a note tied around it. Looking up and down the hallway he didn't see anyone and he couldn't feel anyone watching him now either. Slowly bending down he checked the scroll for wires or seals that might trigger a trap, finding nothing he picked the scroll up and went into his apartment. Sitting at the table Naruto slowly unwrapped the note and opened it.

 ** _You've seen what will come to pass, be better prepared._**

 ** _Tell no-one._**

A seal appeared underneath the writing and ignited the paper, turning the note to ash in less than a second. Naruto just sat and stared at the small pile of ash in front of him, someone else knew, someone who might be able to tell him what the hell was happening. Turning to the scroll Naruto picked it up and unrolled it, in front of him was a guide to few basic Fūton jutsu, the familiar excitement of learning a new jutsu flooded through his system as a grin formed on his face. He was itching to start training with this scroll be a glance of the clock told him he needed to go and meet up with the team, even though it would be another couple of hours before Kakashi showed up.

Rolling the scroll back up Naruto hid it in the jumpsuit he'd gotten from Guy-Sensei knowing that no-one would want to look in it before going to get showered, once he'd cleaned the grime of training away he ate a quick breakfast and putting his weights back on jogged to the bridge which acted as Team7's meeting place.

He arrived there first and decided to work on his chakra control more so started to walk up and down the ornate gate of the bridge while he waited. Sakura was next to arrive and chose to sit on the railing of the bridge watching Naruto, occasionally pointing out where his control wasn't strong enough or too strong. A few minutes later Sasuke sauntered onto the bridge and Sakura forgot that Naruto existed, immediately hovering around Sasuke while he watched the blonde training. Picking his pace up a little Sasuke jogged up to the pillar opposite Naruto's and copied him leaving Sakura to simply stand on the bridge and watch them.

"Hey Sakura, have you been working on that punch from the bell test?" Naruto asked.

"Huh? Oh, kind of. Kakashi-Sensei told me not to do it but I've been thinking about it." The rosette said.

"Why'd he tell you not to do it?"

"Probably for the same reason he told you not to use that move that blew up."

"Yeah, but that hasn't stopped me so it shouldn't stop you." Naruto flipped off the pillar turning in the air to land facing Sakura. "We're ninja now, we need to know as much as we can to complete our missions and come back alive. I've got somewhere I train when we're not together as a team, if you want to come train with me meet me at Ichiraku's after training today."

"Wait, you want to do more training after what Kakashi-Sensei puts us through?"

"It's the only way to get stronger, pushing ourselves past our limits." Naruto smiled and leant closer to Sakura. "If you want Sasuke to take you seriously then you need to prove you're different to the other girls and not drool over him like you do." Sakura flushed red and swung at Naruto's head, the blonde skipped back letting her fist pass in front of his face and turn a section of the bridge's rail into splinters. "Telling her about that punch now might've been a mistake." He muttered as he jumped away from another punch which put a hole through the bridge's walkway. "Yep, definitely a mistake." A third punch came at him causing him to roll out of the way and slide into a fighting stance with a grin. _At least I've got Sakura's doing some training now._

Two hours later Kakashi turned up to find Sasuke standing upside down on the gate, Naruto attempting to climb the gate with just his hands and Sakura using part of the broken rail as a crutch while she caught her breath.

"Have my cute little Genin been training by themselves? I'm so proud of you." He said, drawing attention to himself.

"Well, we needed to do something while we waited for you to turn up." Naruto replied as he continued to try climbing the pillar. Kakashi closed his visible eye, scratched his cheek and chuckled nervously.

"You see an old man needed help repairing his gate and…"

"Never mind, let's just get going." Naruto said releasing his hold on the column and dusting himself off. Sasuke dropped from his position and Sakura straightened up, letting her makeshift crutch fall.

"In that case, time for our first mission of the day, come on Team 7." With that Kakashi turned around and lead his team towards their mission.

The day progressed as they usually did, Team 7 went from mission to mission and after their last mission on the way to Hokage tower Naruto realised what day it was. It was the day they would get the mission to the Land of Waves.

 _Damn, I need more time to prepare._ He thought, _I've got no idea how I'm going to stop Zabuza and Haku from dying._

 **Calm down brat, we'll think of something. For though just now watch where you're going.** Kurama said.

 _"_ _What?"_ Naruto replied just before tripping over a box. "Whoa!" He shouted out loud as he started to fall, he felt something grab his collar and pull him back to his feet. Turning around the blonde chuckled seeing Guy. "Thanks again Guy-Sensei."

"I see your youth is still burning too brightly for your feet to keep up Naruto."

"I'm working on it Guy-Sensei, I'm working on it."

"You two know each other?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, I met Guy-Sensei while I was training a couple of weeks ago. He's started helping me get stronger."

"Is that so?" Kakashi said, glancing at Guy over the top of his book as he snapped it shut. "Why would you be helping one of my cute little Genin Guy? You have your own team to train."

"Well, since you ask, Naruto asked for my help to become stronger as you seem to be more focused on the young Uchiha and leaving the remainder of your team to their own devices." Guy replied as Naruto winced from the blank gaze Kakashi levelled at him.

"That's not entirely true, I've been teaching them chakra control exercises something that Naruto needs due to the size of his reserves."

"Er…Kakashi-Sensei." Sakura said meekly, "You only started doing them to stop Naruto from bothering you about it. Everything else has been team formations and some sparring. You…you do tend to give Sasuke more attention than me and Naruto." Silence fell between the group as Kakashi glanced at Sasuke who was looking down the street.

"Sasuke, do you have anything to add?"

"No, it makes sense for you to spend your time on me over those two." Sasuke said in his usual disinterested monotone. "They're both weak, it'd be a waste of your energy to try and train them." Sakura's shoulders slumped at Sasuke's words while Naruto ground his teeth and clenched his fists so hard that his fingernails cut into the palms of his hands. He could feel his anger rising but suppressed it, _I need Sasuke alive, I need him alive, I need him alive._ Naruto thought to himself over and over again. _To stop Kaguya I need him alive, don't kill him. Beat Kaguya together, then I can kill him. Yeah, that sounds like a plan…I could break a bone or two though, they'd heal._ A feral smirk crossed his lips for a brief moment before he suppressed it.

"It seems like my Genin are all in agreement." Kakashi sighed as he put his book in his pouch. "I guess I'll have to get better as a Sensei. Naruto, I think you should continue to train with Guy and that Sakura should join you. As long as you don't mind Guy, fitness training is more your speed then mine."

"What!" Naruto and Sakura shouted at the same time. _He's palming us off just like the Chunin exams with Ebisu._ Naruto thought, gritting his teeth. It was one thing for him to go and ask for help on his own but Kakashi doing it was just a slap in the face.

"Yosh! I accept your challenge Kakashi. I'll have you Genin in top condition in no time at all." Guy shouted as he punched a fist to the sky. Kakashi groaned, and not for the first time wondered why he was friends with Guy, scratching his cheek he turned to his Genin.

"Sakura, you may have the best chakra control but that's partly down to your small chakra reserves, in terms of strength, speed and endurance however you have the least on the team. Your intelligence is a great asset and training with Guy of a morning is sure to help you improve. I know you've been wanting to perfect the punch you used during the bell test, I'll start helping you with that during our training sessions. Naruto, I know that you've been working on the Rasengan even though I've told you not tooI've asked Lord Hokage to call someone back to the village to help you with that he'll be a better teacher for you then I will in regards to the Rasengan. There's your chakra control too, you need to work on that a lot more, it'll never be as accurate as Sakura's but even though you have reserves much larger than mine you waste too much on even the simplest jutsu. Finally Sasuke you're the fastest member of the team and just below Naruto as the strongest physically, you could do with a little more endurance but your own training will deal with that in time and I think you could do with increasing your chakra reserves so before we meet up in the mornings I want you to push yourself to your limits and arrive at our meeting place without touching the ground. That includes the ground inside your home." Kakashi waited to let that sink in before continuing. "I want you to start after we come back from our next mission, which will be a C-Rank. I want to see what you're made of on something a little harder than the usual D-Rank. For now, let's go and turn in our completed missions and pick up our next one." Not waiting for an answer this time Kakashi turned and started walking towards Hokage Tower, Sasuke was the first to follow him with Sakura being next, leaving Naruto stood with Guy.

"Well done Naruto." Guy said slapping the blonde on the back causing him to stumble forward.

"What did I do?" Naruto asked in reply.

"Didn't you see it?" Naruto shook his head. "You reignited Kakashi's flames of youth, it's been a long time since I last saw that fire in his eyes." Guy started to walk away and called over his shoulder, "When you return from your mission meet up with Sakura and bring her to the training area we were in this morning. Goodbye Naruto."

"I will Guy-Sensei, bye." Naruto shouted after the Jonin before running to catch up with his Team.

Team 7 arrived at Hokage Tower and stood in front of the Third Hokage. Naruto had avoided coming to see him up until now, he knew it would be painful seeing Hiruzen again. He mightn't be related to the old man but Naruto couldn't help thinking of him as a grandfather, he was always there when Naruto needed to talk or simply need to be around someone who didn't glare or ignore him. Amongst his happiest memories where sitting with the old man at Ichiraku and simply standing together on top of Hokage Monument watching the sunset.

Naruto could feel tears starting to well up in his eyes, his throat felt dry, his palms were sweaty and he could feel his heart beating a mile a minute. _Keep it together Naruto, keep it together._ He thought. _You knew it would be hard seeing the old man but don't focus on that, you have to act like a kid again._ A memory flashed through Naruto's mind making him grin.

"Hey, old man. **Oiroke no Jutsu.** " Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke and was replaced with a female version of himself covered with strategically placed clouds. There was a moment where Kakashi sighed, Sasuke grunted in disinterest and Sakura growled before the Third Hokage's nose started to bleed.

"NA-RU-TO!" Sakura yelled as she drove a fist into the top of the blonde's head, breaking the jutsu and returning Naruto to his usual appearance. "You idiot!" Naruto was knocked onto the floor and sat there rubbing his head while wearing a stupid grin and chuckling to himself.

"I see you're the same as ever Naruto." Hiruzen Sarutobi said, dabbing the blood from under his nose. A small smile crossed the old man's face as he looked at the blonde. "I assume you've finished the missions for today Kakashi."

"We have Lord Hokage, and I would like to request a C-rank mission." Kakashi replied, Hiruzen raised an eyebrow.

"A C-rank, are you sure your team's ready for that Kakashi?"

"I believe so, I want to see what my team is capable of when they are pushed a little. A low level C-rank should be enough for me to properly evaluate their skills." Hiruzen leant back in his chair and cast an appraising eye over the Genin in front of him while he smoked his pipe. Academy records had Sasuke down as a highly skilled individual although extremely arrogant and egotistical, Sakura had the highest test scores but her practical skills were slightly below average and Naruto's records had him placed as quite possibly the worst Genin the village had ever produced but he'd managed to learn an A-rank Kinjutsu and beaten a Chunin in a matter of hours. This team was one to watch Hiruzen knew that much.

"Very well, we have a few missions you can choose from." Hiruzen looked at the scroll in front of him. "There's a mission to chase away some bandits, protecting a farmer's livestock from poachers or an escort mission to the Nami no Kuni."

"We'll take the escort mission, it might do the team some good to see what life outside the village is like. Going to Nami no Kuni will be perfect and easy enough for the three of them to deal with." Kakashi said.

 _That's what you think Kakashi-Sensei._ Naruto thought as his mind wandered to what he'd need for the mission. The sound of a door opening snapped him back to the present, looking over his shoulder he saw Tazuna leaning against the doorframe, rope ties around his head and a bottle in his hand. A red blush crossed his face showing he'd been at the bottle for a while, either that or he really couldn't hold his liquor.

"This is what I get? A bunch of snot-nosed kids straight off their mother's teats." Tazuna took a swig from his bottle. "I thought I was getting real ninja for guards, the blonde shrimp won't last three seconds in the world outside this village."

"Better a shrimp then a drunken old geezer, just how many of us can you see?" Naruto retorted. "I thought we had a client not a drunk who's been sleeping in the gutter for a week." Tazuna just glared at Naruto before letting out a bark of laughter.

"You're alright kid, you're still a shrimp though."

"And you're still a drunk."

"My name is Kakashi Hatake, a Jonin. If anything comes up during the mission that is beyond the capabilities of these three I will handle, there is no need to worry about your safety." Kakashi said, stepping in front of Naruto so the insults would stop. Tazuna looked Kakashi up and down before grunting.

"If you had some muscle on you, I might believe that." Tazuna turned and started walking away. "We leave first thing in the morning." He called over his shoulder.

"I think that's our business concluded Kakashi. Brief Sakura and Sasuke on the mission and what they will need to take, I wish to speak with Naruto privately for a few moments. I'll make sure he's aware of what to expect and what's expected of him." Hiruzen said, still puffing on his pipe.

"As you wish Lord Hokage." Kakashi replied, steering Sakura and Sasuke out of the room. As they left Naruto saw the looks of curiosity on their faces and simply smiled at them waving as they left his sight. Hiruzen turned to the people around him.

"Leaves us, I will call you once I am ready for you to return." The room quickly emptied until it was only Naruto and Hiruzen left. The strict business-like face the Hokage wore faded and was replaced with a kind smile. "How have you been doing Naruto?"

"Fine, I'm still coming for your hat." The blonde replied, this didn't happen in his vision/past, whatever it was that happened to him.

"Kakashi tells me you've been showing some unusual traits, you've been pushing for chakra control exercises, training with Might Guy and his protégé of a morning and that doesn't include the things you did during the bell test. Using the Rasengan, fighting in a manner that you've never shown before, planning an effective strategy and teaching Sakura how to channel her chakra into a punch." Hiruzen took a long inhale from his pipe before slowly exhaling the smoke. "Where did you learn those things?"

"I read about them in a book at the library and I was just lashing out at Kakashi-Sensei, he'd know the Academy style so I thought I'd try and catch him off guard."

"And your strategy?"

"After I failed the first time, I just figured we'd have more chance working together then apart. Convincing Sasuke was a pain but we passed the test." Hiruzen leant back in his chair, Naruto's reasoning was sound but reading and strategizing were not things he was known for.

"The Rasengan and the technique behind that punch are in the library's Jutsu Archive, to which you do not have access, so how did you manage to read about them." Naruto could feel a bead of sweat roll down his back as his mind raced to an answer.

"I've snuck into ANBU headquarters and swapped some of their soldier pills for wasabi, I can get into a library. I found your sake stashes, didn't I? Is there really a need to have so many hidden around the village?" Hiruzen chuckled.

"If you knew one of my former students then you'd understand. I suppose you're right though, some of the ANBU are still hesitant to take soldier pills." Hiruzen inhaled from his pipe again, he knew Naruto well enough to see he wasn't being completely truthful but his explanations were convincing. "Very well Naruto, but in future if you wish to gain access to the library again, please go through the front door."

"Sure thing old man." Naruto grinned while thinking he needed to be more careful in future. Hiruzen quickly briefed Naruto on the purpose of the mission and the sort of things he'd need to take with him before dismissing the blonde. He was just returning his attention to the scrolls in front of him when he noticed Naruto's eyes lock on to the photograph of the Fourth Hokage. It wasn't unusual for Naruto to look at the picture, the Fourth Hokage was a hero to Naruto but what caught Hiruzen's attention was how Naruto was looking at the picture. Normally there was a look of awe and respect, this time however there was something else in Naruto's gaze something that looked a lot like familial pride.

Hiruzen's eyes narrowed as he remembered Kakashi's report of the bell test, Naruto had created a team of shadow clones that looked like the team's parents with the Fourth Hokage taking Naruto's place. When he'd heard about it Hiruzen had put it down to Naruto idolizing Minato but this look in the blonde's eyes made him think maybe there was more to it then there seemed. Did Naruto somehow know his parentage? There were only a small number of people who knew and they were under orders not to speak of it unless given permission to.

 _'_ _This may bear some investigation.'_ The old man thought as Naruto left his sight, resolving to contact Kakashi and Guy requesting they keep an eye on Naruto's behaviour.

As Naruto walked down the street having been given the afternoon off to prepare for the mission, he was making a mental count of how much money he'd earnt from his missions and how much he could spend while still being able to pay rent and food. Once he'd come up with an estimated amount he walked to the closest weapons store, above the door was a sign emblazoned with three kunai pointing outwards with the circular ends overlapping and a whirlpool as a background. Written red under the sign was 'Maelstrom Weapons-Smith' with shuriken acting as the 'o's.

He'd never been in the store before, mainly cause he wasn't an ninja or old enough to own weapons at the time and searching his future memory he couldn't remember the store but that wasn't surprising the only places he could remember were places he'd been on a regular basis and he'd always gotten his weapons from the village armoury. With a shrug Naruto entered the store and started looking around. The store was set out as you'd expect, weapons adorned the walls, swords were grouped together, the same with spears, maces, daggers kunai, and every other type of blade, blank scrolls of varying sizes were piles on tables, spools of ninja wire hung by the main counter and the various type of tags were stacked behind the counter.

"Are you allowed to be in here?" A voice asked, turning in its direction Naruto say it belonged to a boy slightly older then he currently was, a year or two at most. The boy had short messy dark brown hair, wore a pastel blue t-shirt and a pair of black pants, he leant with his back against the counter while twirling a staff between his hands.

"Yeah, I've got a mission tomorrow and I need some supplies." Naruto replied. The boy was about to say something when a deep voice came from whatever rooms were behind the store's counter.

"Arashi, why are you still here? You're meant to be meeting your girlfriend, get out of here."

"She's not my girlfriend and we've got a customer." Arashi called back, his face turning a light red. A low rumbling laugh came from the back of the store and a man appeared, he stood at over six foot with a stocky figure but it was plain to see that it was all muscle. He had some light stubble on his chin and had hair the same as Arashi's but cut much shorter, it was hard to see what the man wore as he had a leather apron on. The man's faces are hard but his hazel eyes had a glint of mischief in them, he reached out and took the staff out of Arashi's hands without looking. "Dad! I nearly beat my record."

"You can beat it another time, now get out of here. Senshi men don't leave women waiting." The man tossed the staff back to Arashi and watched him leave the store. "Sorry about that, I can't resist teasing him." The man grinned before throwing his arms wide. "Welcome to Maelstrom Weapons-Smith, my name is Hyoujin. How can I help you?"

"I need some equipment for a mission, it's a C-rank but I've got a feeling it's going to be harder than it should be." Naruto explained.

"So you want some stuff that can get you out of a pinch if necessary." Hyoujin said, crossing his arms.

"Pretty much."

"Extra kunai and shuriken are a must, smoke bombs, flash-bangs and explosive tags too. Ninja wire can get you out of a pinch and you might need to set some traps." Hyoujin started walking around the store picking items from hooks and shelves as he listed them off. "Some new clothes might be an idea, that jumpsuit definitely draws attention to you. Not every ninja like…mind you all the flashy jutsu you guys do isn't exactly stealthy is it?" Hyoujin let out a short boom of laughter, "If you keep the jumpsuit, I recommend some additional armour you can wear underneath it." The store owner picked up a pair of arm and leg armour. "These should be about your size."

"I…er…I don't have enough money for all this." Naruto said sheepishly.

"It's alright, pay what you can now and I can put the rest on a tab for you to pay off later."

"What if I die on the mission?"

"You've got a lovely outlook on life haven't you?" Hyoujin frowned. "I can claim it from the village, if a ninja dies on a mission and owes money, the business the money is owed to can put in a claim to the village and either they or the person who requested the mission have to pay it as the ninja was working for them. Didn't any other business tell you? I know almost every ninja pays upfront so their village doesn't have to pay for them but it's common knowledge." Hyoujin placed the pile of supplies on the counter on top of an open scroll. "So is there anything else you want? A weapon maybe, or some storage scrolls?"

Naruto looked at the pile on the counter and glanced around the store to see if he'd need anything else, he was about to say no when his eyes landed on a pair of tonfa. They were made from wood and nearly black in colour, the lacquer made them shine brightly and either end was capped in metal. The weapons seemed to call out to him, Naruto didn't like killing, he'd do it if necessary but he preferred not to. The tonfa would fit with his fighting style, increase his range and they could defend against blades.

"Good choice." Hyoujin said, walking over and taking the tonfa down their hooks. "I'm particularly proud of how these turned out."

"You made these?" Naruto asked, Hyoujin nodded and gently caressed the weapons.

"I made all the weapons here, these are the second best tonfa I've ever made."

"Second? Where are the first?"

"In my forge, they're there to inspire me every time I make a new weapon. And when I eventually die they're Arashi's." Hyoujin paused for a minute before holding the tonfa out to Naruto. "Here, try them out." Naruto reached out and took hold of the weapons before stepping back a couple of paces and with some advice from Hyoujin started fighting an imaginary opponent. "Looks like you've found the right weapon." Hyoujin smirked.

"Right weapon? What do you mean?"

"Just a theory I have. I think that there is a right weapon for everyone, a weapon that they have an instinctual understanding of. As soon as they pick it up they know how to use it in a way to benefit them. That's how you looked with them although they might need a little adjustment to be perfect for you."

"What sort of adjustment?" Intrigue coated Naruto's voice as he continued to fight his imaginary opponent.

"I'm thinking a small blade on the end that rests at your elbow, nothing that will kill unless you aim for the right areas, like the neck." Hyoujin nodded, "Come back after your mission and tell me if you want that blade or not."

"I haven't decided if I want to take these yet."

"Don't lie to me son, I can see it in your eyes. You want them, let me measure you and I can make a harness for you to wear." Hyoujin pulled a tape measure out of the pocket of his apron and quickly took the measurements he needed. "Alright, I've got what I need. You'll have the tonfa harnessed across the small of your back, the draw will be a little tricky for one hand but you'll adjust with some practice. Give me a couple of hours and it'll be ready, do you want me to send Arashi with it or would you prefer to collect it yourself?"

"If you don't mind I'd like to hang around and watch you work, never know when I might need to fix it in the field." Naruto said causing Hyoujin chuckle.

"You think further ahead than most people do. Come stand in the doorway of the forge that way you can watch me and let me know if anyone comes in to the store." Hyoujin took the tonfa off Naruto and sealed them into the scroll with the other things Naruto might need for his mission. With a few test fittings, some demonstrations on how to un-holster the tonfa and a couple of customers the harness was ready, Hyoujin added a small kit with extra leather straps and buckles so Naruto could repair the harness if needed. Wanting to know more about the weapons-smith Naruto asked a few questions while Hyoujin worked, he found out that the man was originally from Kirigakure but fled as soon as the civil war started but not before his wife Sachi was killed in the crossfire. Hyoujin and Arashi travelled to Konoha and claimed asylum a little over a year ago and after the pair went through numerous tests and interrogations they were cleared to live in the village as civilians. After that the conversation switched to other subjects until the harness was finally finished. Hyoujin showed Naruto how to wear it, once the blonde had it on Hyoujin stepped back and smiled.

"So, what do you think?" The weapons-smith asked.

"This is great Hyoujin, how much do I owe you?"

"The holster and repair kit are free and for helping me out by watching the store I can give you a bit of a discount. So how do you want to pay? You can either pay some off now and I can put the rest on a tab or I can put all of it on a tab and you can keep your money for yourself. It's your choice, I'll get paid either way."

"I'll pay some off now and a bit more after my mission." Naruto said, handing the money over.

"There's no need to rush paying, just do it as and when you can. I'll give you a whetstone for the kunai and shuriken too and before I forget there's something you need to know about the tonfa. The first few sets of tonfa I made are from some fallen branches I found and I used the resin to varnish them, turns out the branches were from the trees they use to make chakra paper so you can channel your chakra into them. It should make them more durable and maybe more helpful depending on your elemental affinity." Hyoujin said handing over the repair kit, whetstone and scroll of supplies to Naruto who was still wearing the holster.

"Seriously?!"

"There's no need to shout kid. I'm always serious about weapons, especially one's I've made. Now get going, you've probably got some other stuff to do before your mission tomorrow and you'll need to be well rested too."

"Thanks a lot Hyoujin."

"Don't mention it but if anyone asks where you got your stuff, mention it as much as possible. I am running a business after all, thanks for your business and come back soon."

"I will, don't worry about that." Naruto laughed as he jogged out of the shop, waving as he left and not noticing a dark figure leaping in the opposite direction from a building across the street.

The rest of the afternoon went by in a blur for Naruto as he spread out his purchases and started preparing himself for his mission, he moved the jumpsuit Guy had given him and the scroll he'd found earlier fell on to the floor. Remembering that he wanted to be ready for anything he unraveled the scroll and studied the jutsu in front of him, once he'd memorized the hand signs and how he was meant to mould his chakra Naruto rolled the scroll up and sealed it into the one Hyoujin had used for his purchases. He then put that scroll under the floor beneath his bed, it was best to keep this a secret like the note had said, for now at least until he had more information to go on. Naruto returned to making sure he had all he would need for his mission before jumping out of window and running across rooftops to one place he could train with his shadow clones and not be found out. Training Ground Forty Four, the Forest of Death.

Hours later Naruto staggered into his apartment with a sore body and a full stomach after a visit to Ichiraku Ramen, where Ayame had spent the entire time brushing dirt from his clothes and picking leaves, broken twigs and bits of bark out of his hair. He hadn't mastered the jutsu from the scroll but was satisfied the progress he'd made would be enough to get by with for now. Following a quick shower and changing into his pyjamas Naruto set his alarm clock, falling asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Fumbling around blindly Naruto failed to his the snooze button on his alarm clock so he pulled a kunai from under his pillow and threw it, impaling it against the wall. With a long yawn Naruto slowly sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, he got ready for the mission making sure to wear his new armour under his jumpsuit and went over his notes about the mission to the Land of Waves one last time before leaving. His number one priority after protecting Tazuna was making sure Haku and Zabuza survived, how he'd accomplish that was still a mystery but he'd think of something. Hiding his notes away and locking his apartment Naruto shouldered his pack, made sure his tonfa holster was secure and made his way to the main gate.

As he walked through the village Naruto has only one thought, _'Time to change the future.'_

 **That's all I've for now.**

 **Until Next Time**

 **Basic Trainer**


	3. Chapter 3

**Here's Chapter 3, Enjoy.**

Chapter 3

Making Waves

As Naruto approached the main gate he saw that Tazuna, Sakura and Sasuke were there already waiting for the mission to begin. Sasuke was leaning against one of the gates while Sakura swooned over every breath he took and Tazuna was swigging from yet another bottle of sake. Kakashi wasn't in sight but Naruto knew where the Jonin would be, saying goodbye to the Memorial Stone. As much as Naruto wanted to tell Kakashi that Obito was alive, he knew that until he worked out what happened he couldn't tell anyone anything about the future. If what he knew was even the future that was going to happen, he didn't want to cause a panic over something that might not even happen.

There was also the fact that he couldn't predict what would happen if he did choose to tell someone, would Kakashi go running off to try and bring Obito back, would they just lock Naruto up and say he was insane thanks to the Kyuubi? If Kakashi did go after Obito that could just bring Pain to the village a lot sooner and that was one thing that Naruto didn't want happening any earlier than it had too, if it had to happen at all.

"Shrimp." Tazuna greeted

"Drunk." Naruto replied with a smirk, as he put his pack down.

"What's that Naruto?" Sakura asked, having briefly torn her attention away from Sasuke.

"What's what?"

"That thing on your back?"

"There's called tonfa." Naruto slid one from the holster and spun it a few times. "I figured that I'd get something to fight with and these just called out to me."

"Why would we need to fight? It's just an escort mission."

"Yeah, I know but there might be bandits or something." Out of the corner of his eye Naruto saw Tazuna tense and his sake bottle paused briefly before it completed its trip to his lips.

"If anything happened Sasuke would deal with it, right Sasuke?" Naruto sighed as Sakura's attention was turned to the emo of the team. Shrugging the blonde just put the Tonfa back into the holster and sat next to his pack, making sure he'd brought everything he needed. He'd noticed that under the look of disinterest Sasuke wore the Uchiha had actually paid attention to what he'd said.

Before coming to meet up with his team Naruto had gone to Ichiraku and had breakfast, telling the ramen cooks he was going on a mission and wouldn't be around for at least a few days. He'd passed his apartment keys to Ayame, asking her to drop by and water his plants every couple of days until he came back. There was the added bonus of not having the risk of losing his keys on the mission, like last time. It had cost him a pretty penny to get new locks fitted.

"Kunai, shuriken, repair kit, tags, smoke bombs, wire, spare clothes, water, ramen cups." Naruto muttered to himself as he went through his supplies. He smiled as he lifted something out of his bag. "Happy Gama." He patted the fat frog wallet in his hand before carefully placing it back into his bag, making a little bed for it out of his spare clothes. He really did love that frog wallet. Closing his pack, Naruto lean back against the gate and shut his eyes.

When he opened them he was sitting in front of the Kyuubi's cage. Standing up and approaching the bars he looked into see that Kurama was sleeping.

"Hey Furball, wake up!" He shouted and was blasted backwards by a wave of energy.

 **What do you want brat?** Kurama asked as Naruto approached the cage again.

"You have any idea how we can keep Zabuza and Haku alive?" They were running out of time and Naruto couldn't come up with any workable ideas.

 **Tell them Gato will kill them once the job's over.**

"They won't believe me."

 **Kill Gato, if he's dead he can't pay them. They wouldn't have any reason to go after the drunk.**

"You know how I feel about killing."

 **I know, only if absolutely necessary but doesn't this count? One life for two right now and who know how many in the future.** Naruto fell silent. **You might not like it but sometime killing is the only option.**

"I'll find some other way. Haku didn't want to kill me or Sasuke, maybe I can get through to him."

 **Your funeral, but if things start going badly on the bridge I'm taking over. You might be willing to die for what you believe in but I'm not ready to go just yet.**

Naruto nodded and left his mindscape, his eyes opened and his hand shot up on reflex to grab Sakura's wrist before her hand could touch his shoulder. His grip made the pinkette squeak in surprise and try to pull her hand back but couldn't break out of Naruto's hold. Blinking a couple of times Naruto let go of Sakura's wrist and apologised, noticing Kakashi standing nearby and watching him Naruto stood, shouldering his pack.

"Alright, let's go!" Naruto shouted, getting back into character. Kakashi followed with Tazuna having Sakura and Sasuke behind them. Naruto made sure to avoid the dog poop that was on the ground as he took his first steps outside of the village.

The journey to the Nami no Kuni was mostly the same as Naruto remembered it except for a couple of bandit attacks and a spot of bad weather. He'd kept in character and let Sasuke show off against the bandits while he took down the ones Sasuke wasn't close enough to. The downside of that of course was hearing Sakura go on and on about how strong and cool Sasuke was. Whenever they camped for the night Naruto would ask Kakashi for some help learning the fighting forms for tonfa and while he wasn't an expert using them Naruto was quickly becoming adept thanks to the use of his Shadow Clones, though he kept their training a secret for now. He'd make some to keep watch during the night and have some train so he'd get the memories when they dispelled in the morning.

They travelled for a few days before coming to the area where the Demon Brothers had attacked them but due to the bad weather there was more than one puddle on the ground. Naruto's eyes flicked between the pools of water but he couldn't pick out which one the Brothers would appear from, he tried to see if Kakashi reacted to one in particular but the Jonin didn't show any signs of noticing a danger nearby.

Having walked past all the puddles Naruto assumed that this was just something else that was different, like the bandit attacks but as he started to relax, that was when he heard the rattling of chains and turned just in time to see Kakashi wrapped in a spiked chain with the Demon Brothers pulling it tight. Sakura screamed, Tazuna tensed up in fright and Sasuke stared on impassively, Naruto meanwhile was fighting his body's instinct to react. He could just about make out the pieces of the log Kakashi had used for his Substitution Jutsu in the dirt that had been kicked up but didn't see any sign of where Kakashi was hiding, not that he had much time to look anyway. The Demon Brothers made their move but instead of targeting him like he remembered, they moved on Tazuna straight away, not thinking three kids were worth their time, either that or they wanted to get their mission over with and then have some fun terrorizing a bunch of fresh Genin. However just like he remembered Sasuke was there with a shuriken and kunai pinning the chain to a tree trunk. The Demon Brothers separated from their chain before Sasuke could attack and advanced again this time targeting them, one going to Sasuke and the other charged at Naruto as Sakura stood in front of Tazuna with a kunai ready, backing up against a tree.

Being prepared this time Naruto didn't freeze and reached for his tonfa, ready to meet his opponent head on but as he pulled on his weapons, the handles caught on the harness. Naruto continued to tug at the tonfa as panic started to set in but they refused to be drawn, seeing his opponent's clawed gauntlet swinging towards his throat and knowing he needed to do something quickly he did what he always did. He trusted his instincts.

He lunged forward, getting inside of the swing and out of the claws path, as he moved forward he drew his head back before throwing it forward with his bodyweight behind it. Naruto drove his forehead protector into his opponent's face. Hearing a crunch and a howl of pain, Naruto allowed himself a small satisfied smile before he was kicked backwards. He rolled to his feet quickly and finally managed to draw his tonfa, grinning at the broken nose of the Demon Brother.

"Want to try that again or do you give up?" Naruto taunted, spinning his tonfa lazily.

"You're dead runt!" Gōzu spat, or was it Meizu? Naruto could never remember which one was which but left that thought alone, deciding to call the Chunin in front of him Gōzu, as his opponent charged at him. Moving to meet the charge Naruto ducked under the gauntlet at the last second, probably losing a few hairs in the process and stuck out with a punch but Gōzu pivoted to the side and turned his initial slash into an elbow striking Naruto in the temple. Gōzu then followed up the elbow strike with a backhand with his gauntleted hand. Naruto's sleeve was slashed open as the blonde raised his guard but a follow up punch to Naruto's temple knocked the blonde off balance even more. Staggered from the hit Naruto stumbled to the side and brought his tonfa up in time to block a shuriken, Kurama funnelled a little of his chakra into Naruto to clear the blonde's head and received a mental thanks in return.

 **Don't get over confident just because you broke his nose. You're in an undertrained and underexperienced body, you don't possess the speed and strength you're used too.**

Faking a dazed state Naruto managed to lure Gōzu in, he dropped to a knee, letting a tonfa fall to the ground and put a hand on his head making it look like he was trying to regain his wits. What Gōzu saw was too tempting a target to give up but what he couldn't see was the grin on Naruto's face as he let the tonfa he still held swing around so the long part was no longer resting against his forearm.

Waiting till the last second as Gōzu started to taunt him Naruto focussed his chakra into his arm and the tonfa before violently bringing it up between Gōzu's legs. Needless to say Gōzu soon forgot about taunting Naruto and grasped the injured area, unintentionally stabbing himself with the poisoned gauntlet he wore. Jumping to his feet as Gōzu fell to his knees Naruto leapt into a spin kick, the top of his foot cracking against Gōzu's temple sending the Chunin to the ground unconscious.

Taking a couple of seconds to catch his breath he heard a grunt behind him and saw Sasuke being kicked away as Meizu?, he really needed to get better at remembering people, charged at Tazuna with Sakura still standing in the way. Acting without thinking Naruto sped forward, picking up his fallen tonfa as he went, getting to Sakura and Tazuna a second after Sasuke and filled his tonfa with chakra to reinforce them as he brought up a cross-guard, standing in front of the three of them.

 **Swing.** He heard Kurama say to him, trusting the Bijuu at his word Naruto spun his weapons so the long parts were pointing straight up and lashed out bringing his guard down as he pulled his arm away from reach other. The result surprised everyone present as a blue cross of chakra was sent out and blasted the Kiri-nin away. Meizu crashed into a tree and slumped to the ground, Naruto had enough time to stare at his tonfa dumbly before swaying and falling over. Kakashi appeared in time to catch Naruto before he hit the ground and lay him down. The Jonin then quickly tied the unconscious Chunin to a tree, breaking their fingers to make sure they couldn't use any jutsu to escape.

"Kakashi-sensei, you're alive!" Sakura said in surprise. "We thought…"

"I'm a Jonin for a reason Sakura, a simple Substitution Jutsu can be very effective, I can see you want to know why I stayed hidden though." Kakashi said lazily as he checked Naruto's vitals, noticing a small scratch on the back of Naruto's neck, most likely from the backhand strike he'd taken eariler. "I wanted to see what they were after, whether to just kill some Konoha-nin or something else." Kakashi levelled his visible eye at Tazuna. "Is there something we need to know bridge builder? They were after you, and caused this." He tilted Naruto's head to the side. "See this scratch, this is the reason one of my Genin is dead."

Sakura gasped as her hands covered her mouth, her eyes welling up and Sasuke merely raised an eyebrow, looking at Naruto as he lay on the ground.

"But…but it's only a scratch." Sakura whispered.

"Gōzu and Meizu, also known as the Demon Brothers, a pair of Chunin missing-nin from Kirigakure. They specialty is relentless assault they won't stop until they're either dead or their mission is complete. The claws on those gauntlet's they wear are coated in a deadly poison, it's a miracle that Naruto lasted as long as he did." Kakashi stood and slowly approached Tazuna, the old man's face was pale as snow and his entire body was shaking as what had happened struck him.

Naruto wasn't dead, or even close to being dead, he was in fact in perfect health, apart from a little exhaustion from sending out that chakra wave. Kurama had burnt the poison out of his system as soon as it had entered so he was never in danger but seeing that Kakashi wanted to make point Naruto decided to play along and lay as still as he could to see where it ended up.

"You are the reason Naruto will never get the chance to achieve his dream of being Hokage. You are the reason I have to tell the Hokage that the boy he sees as a grandson returned to the village sealed in a scroll rather than on his own two feet. Naruto worked hard to become a ninja, he mastered a clone jutsu that could kill your average Chunin and apprehended a traitor before he even became a Genin. He had potential to become an exceptional ninja and had only just began to fully apply himself but this is as far as he'll ever get." Kakashi continued, "You withheld information that was vital to the mission putting not only your life on the line but also my team's. The Demon Brothers were after you, this should be at least a B-rank mission, possibly an A-rank dependent on what else lies in store ahead of us if we choose to continue. With all that's happened I am well within the rules that you agreed to upon requesting this mission to either drag you back to Konoha and have your punishment decided there or make a summary sentence right now and leave you to whatever I decide. Either way you're looking at long term imprisonment or death."

Tazuna dropped to his knees as tears started to slowly trickle down his face.

"Please, my home, we barely managed to scrape the money together to pay for a C-rank mission. We're in desperate need of help, Gato is bleeding our country dry and the only hope we have of surviving to the end of the year is the bridge I'm building." Tazuna fell forward, touching his head to the ground between his hands. "I'm begging you, help me save my country. I'll give you anything you want, you can take everything I own and return to your village with me in chains, I won't fight or try to escape from you, I'll accept any punishment I'm given even if I'm condemned to death. Just…just save my home. Please."

"It's not just my decision to make, it affects my Genin too so let's have them make the decision. Sakura, Sasuke, what do you say?"

"Leave." Sasuke grunted without hesitation.

"I…I think we should help, it sounds like things are really bad there." Sakura said timidly, not looking at Sasuke fearing the look of disapproval in his eyes.

"So that's one for helping and one against, this is a pickle we're in. There's only one way to decide now, what do you say, Naruto?"

"We started this mission, might as well finish it." Naruto said as he sat up and stretched, wiping the dried blood off his neck. "There's no way I could be the leader of a village that leaves an entire country to die." Naruto got to his feet and swayed slightly. "Whoo, headrush. Anyway, whatever the rest of you do I'm going ahead with the mission, with or without you."

"You're alive!" Sakura shouted, "But Kakashi-sensei said…."

"Deception is a cornerstone of being a Shinobi, Sakura you need to look underneath the underneath. Naruto was just hit by the shock of sending out a chakra blast like that." Kakashi explained as he put a hand on Naruto's shoulder to keep him steady on his feet. "We live in a world that's filled with lies and mistrust, you can't take anything at face value. I needed to know why Tazuna was being targeted and know I do, Gato doesn't want the people of Nami no Kuni to finish their bridge because it will cut into his profits the best way to stop that from happening is to kill the bridge builder." Kakashi turned to look at the unconscious Chunin tied to the tree.

"Now to deal with those two." Kakashi slowly walked towards the Demon Brothers. "You might want to go and set up a little campsite, there's a clearing a little way into the trees. We need to know what they know." He pulled a kunai from his pouch. "You probably don't want to see what I'm about to do." Sakura paled and with a light push on the back from Naruto slowly walked into the trees with Sasuke leading the way and Tazuna following her. "You too Naruto."

"I have a question first." Kakashi looked back over his shoulder, hearing Naruto speak caused the trio in the forest to stop and listen.

"And that question is?"

"What would you have done?"

"Hm?"

"What would you have done? Gone back to the village or continued the mission?" Kakashi slipped his kunai back into his pouch and with a sigh turned to face Naruto.

"Why do you want to know?"

"I want to know what sort of person you are." Naruto holstered his tonfa. "I know who everyone else is, Sasuke is obsessed with whatever his goal is and only wants to get stronger, he's only putting up with me and Sakura because he has to be in a three man squad. Sakura is mostly focussed on Sasuke and barely tolerates my existence but she could be a great kunoichi, she just need to get past being a fangirl. She's smart and kind that's why she chose to help instead of go home. Out of everyone here, Sakura's the best person. Tazuna, he's the easiest to understand, he's a man who loves his home so much he's willing to put his life on the line to save it and won't back down when he's threatened."

"And what about you?"

"Me?" Naruto looked down and put a hand on his stomach. "I'm just a guy who's making the best out of life that he can. I never knew my parents and for some reason the village hates me, I'm…I was a failure but not anymore. I used to make boasts about being the Hokage, now I'm making a promise." Naruto pulled a kunai from his pouch and quickly sliced his palm, closing his hand into a fist and letting the blood slowly drip between his finger. "I am going to become the Hokage, not so people pay attention to me but to protect my home. I vow to protect everyone, whether they're from Konoha or not. If people need help then I'll be there no matter what. I'm going to be the Hokage that leads Konoha into a world of peace." Naruto stared Kakashi dead in the eye. "I know who I am, so who are you?"

Kakashi didn't answer at first, walking towards Naruto and taking his bleeding hand, wrapping some bandages around it even though the cut had started heal. As he made sure the bandage was tight Kakashi started to speak.

"A friend once said to me 'Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum.' If I'd been on my own or with a Chunin I'd continue the mission and once the bridge had been completed, take Tazuna back to the village but being with three fresh Genin who are outside the village for the first time…I would've had two choices. Return to the village with Tazuna and see what the Hokage had to say or make camp here and send a message back to the village requesting back-up, which I am actually thinking of doing." Kakashi looked back over his shoulder. "It's all dependent on what these two have to say, although they're from Kirigakure so what I had planned probably won't be very effective."

"Well, the one I fought stabbed himself with those claws. We could offer to get them help."

"Those who work with poisons always make sure they are either immune or had a high resistance to the poison they use. He'll be fine and his chakra has already started to heal the wounds. Any other ideas?"

 **Careful, he's testing you.** Kurama cautioned as Naruto opened his mouth to speak.

"We could just ask them." Naruto watched Kakashi's face drop as he voiced his suggestion.

"We don't really have time to interrogate them here, anyone they may be working with will probably come to investigate eventually." Kakashi pulled two scrolls from his pouch and quickly wrote down a report and a request for back-up in one, before walking towards the Demon Brothers. "The two of you are going on a trip to Konoha." Kakashi unraveled the other scroll and flipped through some handseal but before he could press his hand to the scroll Meizu spoke up.

"Wait, at least tell me how you knew we were there."

"Your puddle was clean, all the others were muddy." Kakashi replied slamming his hand to the scroll, simultaneously putting the Demon Brothers under a stasis jutsu and sealing them into the scroll. The Copy Ninja then sped through some more handseals and once again put his hand to the ground, in a puff of smoke a pug wearing a Konoha headband appeared in front of Kakashi.

"Yo." The pug said raising a paw.

"Pakkun, I need you to take these scrolls back to Konoha." Kakashi held up one scroll. "Give this one to the Hokage and the other needs to be delivered to Ibiki."

"Do I really have to go to that sadist?"

"I'm afraid so, I have some prisoners for him to interrogate asap. This mission has taken an unexpected turn and any information he can get out of these prisoners will be a great help." Pakkun sighed as he heard Kakashi's reasons for sending him to the Torture and Interrogation Force.

"Fine, I'll go to Ibiki but you owe me." Pakkun took the scrolls in his mouth and sped off down the road, leaving a trail of dust in his wake.

Kakashi stood and walked back to Naruto. Putting a hand on the blonde's shoulder and turning him round, Kakashi started to lead Naruto into the forest.

"We'll camp here for the night and move out at first light. Pakkun will've reached the village by then and given Ibiki's track record he'll have broken the Demon Brothers by nightfall, after that the Hokage will have organized our back-up and they'll be sent out the following morning. If all goes will they'll arrive in Nami a day or two after us." The Copy Ninja said, after walking for a minute Kakashi stopped and with his hand still on Naruto's shoulder caused the blonde to stop too.

"Kakashi-Sensei?"

 **He's sensing your chakra, to see if you're lying.** **Watch how you answer.** Kurama warned.

"Did you notice anything earlier? Before the attack?" Kakashi asked.

"What do you mean?" Naruto replied.

"I want to know whether you saw something or knew something about the attack before it happened."

"I didn't see anything before, I heard the chains and turned to see you wrapped up in them."

"It's just that when I was watching who the Demon Brothers were going after I noticed that you seemed to be fighting your own reactions. It's not uncommon for Genin to freeze up during their first battle and Sasuke would have to come to save you if you had."

"Like I need him to save me." Naruto spat, sensing Kurama sighing at his reaction. "I was going to pulverize them but knew I couldn't leave Sakura alone."

"She wasn't alone, Sasuke was there."

"He wouldn't have done anything to help her."

"But he did, he jumped in front of her before you jumped in front of him."

"That wasn't for Sakura, that was for the mission. If Tazuna died we would've failed the mission and Sasuke's ego wouldn't let that happen."

"You could be right but when we were going past the puddles, I saw your eyes moving between them and looking at me. So I'm going to ask again." Kakashi's grip on Naruto's shoulder tightened slightly, though his voice stayed as relaxed as usual. "Did you know about the attack?"

"NO!" Naruto shouted, shoving Kakashi's hand off his shoulder and stepping into the Jonin's personal space. "How could I? This is the first time I've been outside the village and you would've noticed if someone was talking to me while we've been on the road." Kakashi studied Naruto's angry face for a minute before nodding.

"That's true, I just needed to be sure. You were acting suspicious, I suppose it could've been adrenaline though." Kakashi patted Naruto's shoulder before starting to walking towards the clearing again.

 _'_ _That was close.'_ Naruto thought to himself as he took a few breaths to slow his heartbeat. Getting angry and choosing his answers carefully was just enough to slip through Kakashi's questions without actually lying. True, it could be classed as lying by omission mostly but Naruto didn't worry about that. This technically was his first time out of the village, even if for him it was for the second time.

 **I keep telling you to be wary of that one.** Kurama said. **Do you think it's coincidence that you were put onto a team where the Sensei has the Sharingan?**

"What do you mean by that?"

 **You know what happened to me, use that pebble you call a brain and think about it.**

Naruto slowly started to follow Kakashi as he thought about Kurama's question, stopping the blonde spun around and punched a tree. His fist leaving an indent that splintered the surrounding wood. Naruto didn't feel any pain, only the pounding of his heart, he stood there breathing heavily as he tried to control his temper. How had he not seen it before, it was all there in front of him yet he'd been blind to it.

 **So you worked it out then.** Kurama chuckled. **Bijuu are susceptible to the control of the Sharingan which extends to Jinchurikki hence why none of you are capable of performing more than the most basic Genjutsu at most, if any at all. While the old man may have faith in you he has to put the village first and probably had to do something to quiet the Elders.**

"Just…just shut up." Naruto closed his eyes and waited for his heart to slow down.

 **Someone's coming.**

Naruto didn't reply as he pretended to pee.

"Naruto? Where are you?" Sakura called out from between the trees.

"I'm over here Sakura." He replied. "I just needed to pee real bad. I'll be at the camp in a minute."

"Oh…okay, I'll let Kakashi-Sensei know you're alright." Naruto waited as he listened to Sakura's footsteps fade away.

"Damn."

 **What?**

"Now I really do need to pee." Naruto heard Kurama sigh and could picture the fox rolling his eyes as he took care of business.

The Following Morning

Naruto and Sasuke quickly packed up their campsite and covered up the fact that they'd been there, in case any more enemy ninja were tracking them. As they continued to walk down the road Naruto was waiting for Zabuza to appear, he saw the Demon of the Mist in every shadow and behind every tree. No matter how hard Naruto tried to calm himself down he couldn't and as a bush rustled he launched a kunai into it, hearing a dull thunk as it impacted with it's target.

"What did you do that for Naruto?" Sakura questioned angrily, stalking toward him..

"Sorry, just a little on edge after yesterday." He replied as he went to see what he'd hit. Moving the branches of the bush aside he saw a snow white rabbit. Picking it up by it's ears, he retrieved his kunai and turning around Naruto grinned stupidly. "I've got lunch." Seeing Kakashi eye the rabbit reminded Naruto that this had happened before, he'd reacted the same way except he'd hit the rabbit this time.

But the rabbit meant only one thing, causing Naruto's grip on the rabbit's ears to tighten, Zabuza was coming and sooner than expected.

"Get down!" Naruto shouted at the same time as Kakashi seeing Kubikiribōchō speeding towards them. Kakashi dove onto Sasuke and Tazuna, knocking them to the ground as Naruto tackled Sakura a split second before the blade passed through the space her head had been in.

Everyone kept their heads down until they heard the sword impact a tree. Slowly lifting his head Naruto saw

Kubikiribōchō had sliced halfway through the tree before stopping and crouched on the handle, staring down at them was Zabuza Momochi. Seeing the Demon of the Mist and feeling the killing intent radiating from him, Naruto could only think of one thing to say.

"Fuck."

 **That's all I've got for now.**

 **Until Next Time**

 **BasicTrainer**


	4. Chapter 4

**Before we get to the chapter there's something I need to say. I got a review that I feel needs to be addressed.**

Yet another generic naruto goes back in time to save the future fanfic.  
Naruto is more badass  
Naruto takes initiative and dates hinata  
Every One grows stronger.  
Naruto saves sasuke  
Sigh...no good fanfics to read at all.

 **I just feel the need to point a couple of things out**

 **1) It's been said a few times in the story so far that time travel is impossible.**

 **2) Even fanfic that has Naruto as the main character makes him more badass.**

 **3) Hinata hasn't appeared except for the short future piece at the beginning and I haven't decided whether I'm going to go forward with the canon pairing or not.**

 **4) Same as number 2, it's the done thing to make everyone stronger.**

 **5) As I've written in a previous chapter Naruto hasn't decided on whether saving Sasuke is something that should be done or not.**

 **And finally**

 **6) There's no need to have a pop at how I write a story, if you don't like it don't say anything.**

 **With that of my chest, here's chapter 4**

Chapter 4

Dancing with the Demon

"Fuck is right." Zabuza chuckled lowly before turning his attention to Kakashi as the Jonin stood up with Team 7 and Tazuna following his example. "You know the drill, right? Hand over the old man, you and the kids can walk away. Nothing personal, just business, you understand." The Demon of the Mist let his killing intent flood the area surrounding the team, Sakura went pale and started to shake while Sasuke froze in place, shock etched into his features. Tazuna looked just as shocked as Sasuke, his eyes flicked around, looking for an escape route. As for Naruto, he simply looked unimpressed as he scratched his ear with his little finger.

"What's wrong with the brat?" Zabuza asked Kakashi, towards Naruto. "He should be a mess."

"I felt worse the first time I pranked the Old Man." The blonde replied, a slight shiver running down his spine as he remembered the feeling.

Around the team bushes rustled as a band of men rose into view, Naruto counted ten and knew that Haku would still be somewhere nearby watching. Gently guiding Sakura behind him, Naruto kept his focus on Zabuza. The men surrounding them were just standard thugs, mostly likely hired by Gato. They wouldn't be much of a problem for himself, Sasuke and Sakura to deal with, that was if they hadn't been paralysed by Zabuza's KI.

"I appreciate the offer but unfortunately I have to decline. Our mission is to protect this man and it would look bad if we failed, you understand." Kakashi replied, his voice and posture showing he was completely unfazed by the fact he and his team were outnumbered and surrounded. Zabuza nodded and sighed as he ran a hand through his short black hair.

"Yeah, I understand. Can't say I'm surprised though and to be honest I was hoping for this to happen." The Demon of the Mist grinned under the bandages that covered his mouth. "I've always wanted to see how I stacked up against the infamous Copy Ninja."

One of the thugs ran up, kicking Naruto to the side while he was distracted and lifted Sakura by the collar of her dress.

"Hey boys let's just kill them all and get this over with." The thug lifted the scared stiff Sakura to take a proper look at her. "Massive forehead this one." Unconscious reflex made Sakura's arm swing around and back-fist the thug across the jaw. The thug staggered but kept his grip on the pinkette. "Feisty, we'll see how long that lasts. She's not much to look at guys but we can still have some fun later." The man didn't get a chance to say or do anything else as Zabuza flickered in to existence behind him and the thug's head toppled off his neck, blood spurting into the air as his body fell and released his hold on Sakura. A kunai hit the head as it started to fall, tracking the trajectory back found Naruto's outstretched arm. Kakashi's eyebrow rose as he saw no hesitation in Naruto's throw or the expression on his face, what really caught Kakashi's attention was the look in Naruto's eyes. They held the gaze of an experienced shinobi, something else that wasn't expected from the renowned troublemaker. Kakashi filed this piece of information away for later as right now wasn't the time to deal with it.

 **What happened to only when necessary?** Kurama asked, his grin easily heard in the tone of his voice.

 _Not the time._ Naruto replied as he kept his focus on Zabuza, in case he made a move against Sakura.

"I'll only say this once. We are monsters, not scum. Women are spared!" Zabuza snarled, glaring at the remaining thugs. "Am I clear?!" Hasty nods came from the thugs as they knew what would happen to them. "Blondie, get up here and take the girl." Slowly Naruto approached, keeping his senses on high alert but Zabuza didn't move an inch as he picked up Sakura in a princess carry and retreated without turning around.

"Naruto, get Tazuna and the others out of here." Kakashi ordered. "I'll take care of Zabuza, think you can make it through the others?"

"Can I?" Naruto smirked, placed Sakura on the ground behind him, turned to face the remaining thugs, cracked his fingers and formed his favourite handsign. A horde of clones popped into existence around him. "Sic 'em." All the clones grinned evilly and charged at the thugs surrounding them with a war cry, drawing weapons as they went. Naruto spun, picked up Sakura and started running, slapping Sasuke's face as he passed. "Come on Sasuke, grab Tazuna and follow me. New orders, protect the client at all cost!"

Sasuke shook his head as he snapped out of the haze from Zabuza's KI and chased after Naruto, grasping Tazuna's wrist and dragging the old man behind him. They ran through a gap in the ring of thugs made by Naruto's clones, dropping a few smoke bombs behind them.

Kakashi kept his eyes fixed on Zabuza but the Demon of the Mist didn't move an inch as he watched Naruto lead the others away.

"Zabuza Momochi, Demon of the Mist." Kakashi said, drawing the Rogue-Nin's attention. "I feel like I should thank you for what do did for my students."

"Don't." Zabuza replied, dismissing Kakashi with an uninterested flick of his hand. "Scum like that needs to be dealt with before it can spread. I hate bastards like that, I did to get him out of my sight. Nothing more, nothing less." Zabuza pointed his sword at Kakashi. "Now Copy Ninja, let's see who's better." The former Kiri-Nin charged forward as Kakashi dropped into a fighting stance and drew a kunai.

Meanwhile

Tazuna stood with his back against a tree and panted for breath as Sasuke stood guard over him and Naruto used some Shadow Clones to make sure they were safe. While the clones searched the area, the original was knelt next to Sakura and cleaning away the blood from the thug earlier, he didn't want to snap her out of Zabuza's KI and have her freak out due to being splattered in blood. Once he'd finished cleaning her face and what he could out of her hair Naruto put a hand on her shoulder and sent a small pulse of charka into her body. Sakura's eyes widened and her mouth opened to scream but Naruto quickly slapped his hand over her mouth.

"Sakura, it's okay. You're safe, I'm going to take my hand away now so don't scream…okay?" The blonde asked softly, watching the panic and fear in her eyes slowly fade away he waited until he eventually got a small nod from the pinkette, gently taking his hand off her mouth.

"W-what happened?" Sakura asked. "I remember that guy with the sword asking us to hand over Tazuna and then…"

"He released his killing intent to scare us." Naruto explained.

"How do you know what it was?" Sasuke grunted.

"Hanging around the Old Man, I picked up a few things." Naruto stood up and brushed some dirt off his pants. "You guys stay here and protect Tazuna, I'm going back to help Kakashi-Sensei."

"I'm coming too." A trio of stares snapped to Sakura's face as she slowly got to her feet. "We heard what Kakashi-Sensei said last night. People who abandon their comrades are worse than scum." She smoothed out her dress and then looked at her hands when she felt them grow wet. Lifting her hands Sakura stared at the blood on her palms before turning her gaze to Naruto, the blonde quickly explained what happened and watched as Sakura's hands closed into fists and her head lowered to stare at the ground. They stood in silence for a minute before Sakura spoke again. "Did you mean what you said last night?"

"Huh?"

"About me being a great kunoichi if I stopped being a fangirl?"

"Er…you heard that?" Naruto took a nervous step back out of reflex more than conscious thought. "I know what I said sounded bad but…"

"Just tell me, did you mean it?" Sakura lifted her head and fixed Naruto with a focused stare.

"…Yes. I know you can be an amazing kunoichi but you need to train more."

"And stop being a fangirl for Sasuke."

"Yeah…that too." Naruto said quietly not meeting her eyes.

"Then this is my first step to being better. We need to go and help Kakashi-Sensei, lead the way."

Naruto spawned a horde of clones and tasked them to protect Tazuna as he, Sakura and Sasuke ran back to the sounds of battle.

Stopping in some bushes, they watched as Kakashi and Zabuza fought on the surface of the nearby lake. The two shinobi were battling back and forth, dodging each other's blades and launching jutsu whenever they had the opportunity.

"You live up to your reputation Kakashi but I was expecting more, now show me you can live up to your name. Fight me with your Sharingan." Zabuza laughed as he flew into a series of spinning slashes. Sasuke tensed as he heard the name of his clan's Kekkei Genkai and started to growl lowly as he heard Zabuza continue speaking. "Show me you have the eye of a thief, the Uchiha were a group of thieves with no skill except for what they stole from those they fought. The only Uchiha that even deserves the genius title that clan of fakes gave themselves is Itachi, now he's a shinobi."

Naruto's arm shot out to grab hold of Sasuke and he managed to hold his teammate back for a few minutes as Kakashi lifted his hitai-ate to reveal his Sharingan. Keeping Sasuke in place was hard and Naruto was forced to release his hold on the Uchiha after being punched in a pressure point. Sasuke leapt out of their hiding place and charged towards Zabuza at full speed yelling at the top of his lungs, anger burning in his eyes. Naruto was about to follow but Kakashi was already on an intercept course and pushed Sasuke out of the way a split second before Zabuza would've trapped the Uchiha in a Water Prison. The downside of Kakashi's actions were that he was now trapped in the Water Prison. Sasuke jumped to his feet and was about to charge again when Naruto tackled him to the ground.

"Don't be an idiot!" Naruto shouted, slapping Sasuke across the face with the back of his hand. "He knew we were there and said that to get you riled up. Kakashi-Sensei's trapped now because of you!" A sharp crack rang out as another slap connected. "Get your head out of your ass and think!" Naruto stood up and turned to stare down Zabuza.

"Naruto, get out of here and take Tazuna back to the village. That's an order!" Kakashi yelled from within the Water Prison.

"No way." Naruto replied, not taking his gaze from Zabuza as a Water Clone formed between them. "We are shinobi of Konohagakure, we don't abandon our comrades." His hands rose and formed a handsign as Sakura drew a kunai and Sasuke got to his feet. Twenty clones appeared in a puff of smoke and charged the Water Clone, Naruto handed a folded up Fuma shuriken to Sasuke. "Let him have it." Sakura stayed back throwing kunai and shuriken whenever she saw an opening, she did little more than annoy the Water Clone but it was a start to her getting stronger.

Sasuke took the Fuma shuriken and nodded, flicking his wrist and letting the weapon unfold, taking a step forwards and spinning on the ball of his foot Sasuke used the momentum of the spin to add power to his throw. The Fuma shuriken curved around the Water Clone and headed towards Zabuza.

"Really? You think that'll work." Zabuza snorted, glancing at Kakashi. "The Hidden Leaf's really lowered its standards if this is the best they can do." Swinging Kubikiribōchō around, Zabuza deflected the shuriken and leapt over the second that was hidden in the first's shadow.

The second passed underneath Zabuza harmlessly and travelled a few feet away before transforming back into Naruto. Naruto threw a kunai at the hand holding Kakashi in the Water Prison. The plan was working just as he remembered, that was until Zabuza's foot shot out and he effectively grabbed the kunai with his chakra and flicked it away. Naruto landed in the lake and quickly started swimming back to the shore, as Zabuza landed on the water surface again he once more jumped into the air, avoiding a Shadow Clone that had entered the lake a short distance away from the battle and had attempted to stab Zabuza in the foot. A quick stab and the Shadow Clone dispelled but it had diverted Zabuza's attention long enough for Naruto to get back to the shoreline and be sliced in two by the Water Clone. Naruto dispelled in a cloud of smoke as did his other clones leaving the original along with Sakura and Sasuke facing the Water Clone.

"Not bad blondie, no way in hell that'd work but not bad." Zabuza smirked. "What are you going to do now?"

Naruto threw a handful of smoke-bombs on the ground, hiding the trio from sight. A shower of kunai shot out of the smoke and as Zabuza effortlessly blocked them he triggered a second barrage of smoke-bombs with a couple of added annoyances from Naruto's pranking supplies that had been attached to the weapons.

Zabuza fought his need to sneeze and rub his eyes thanks to the pepper and chili powder mixed in with the smoke, he felt something disturb the chakra of his Water Prison. _The kid can't be trying that._ The rogue ninja thought as he tried to fight the disturbance but couldn't.

"Damn, how much chakra does this kid have?" Zabuza grunted before feeling a chill flash through his blood as he remembered the last time he'd gone up against someone with this much chakra. _He's a jinchurikki._ Zabuza thought as he felt the disturbance end a swing of his enormous sword cleared the enough of the smoke cloud to reveal the grinning face of Naruto sitting in the Water Prison.

"Yo." Naruto greeted with a small wave.

Looking back to the shore Zabuza saw a thoroughly soaked Kakashi standing where Naruto had been, the blonde had really pulled of a Kawarimi with the Jonin.

"Alright blondie, I'm impressed. You've got a pair of brass ones for pulling that off, doesn't change the fact that you're my…What the hell are you laughing for?!" Zabuza demanded as Naruto broke into a full belly laugh. Hearing snickering from the shore Zabuza looked as saw Sakura giggling as Sasuke fought to keep himself composed and even though nearly all of Kakashi's face was hidden away it was still easily spotted that the Jonin was grinning. Now that the smokescreen had cleared fully Zabuza caught sight of something shining from the corner of his eye, looking for the source he found he was looking at his own skin or more specifically glitter that was coating his body. "What the…?"

"Naruto is known for his pranking ability back in Konoha, it seems like you're his first victim outside of the village." Kakashi said calmly but there was an undertone of mirth to his voice.

"You little bastard." Zabuza growled and spun Kubikiribōchō around to slice through the Water Prison and Naruto in one fluid movement. Naruto split in two and disappeared in a puff of smoke. "Just how many of these fucking clones can he make?"

"His limit hasn't been found yet, largest group he's made so far is a little over a thousand. We couldn't get an exact count because he started fighting himself." Kakashi replied. "The ploy failed Naruto, you can come out now." A rock behind Sasuke turned into Naruto but not the usual Naruto, the blonde had appeared in his **Oiroke no Jutsu** form complete with clouds.

"Forgive me? Za-bu-za-Sa-ma." Naruto in a girly voice, accompanying each syllable with a jiggle of his chest. The Demon of the Mist glared at Naruto and started to snarl, his grip on Kubikiribōchō tightening so much the handle's binding could be heard creaking.

"You're dead kid."

Zabuza prepared to launch himself at the group when a section of the bushes rustled, all the shinobi went on alert. A dark-skinned man with white hair and a goatee stepped out with Pakkun under his arm, he was bare-chested underneath white body armour that only covered his stomach up to his left shoulder, white fingerless glove covered his hands and forearms with three red stripes on each forearm section and a silver ring on the back of each hand, a long white scarf was wrapped around his neck and a thick red rope was tied around his waist. Black pants with a band of white cloth tied around each leg just above the knee, his lower legs were covered with shin guards with the same three red stripes as his gloves, black sandals were on his feet and seven swords were arranged on his back. A pair of oval shaped sunglasses covered his eyes, he had two tattoos one on his right shoulder and the other on his left cheek and on his forehead was a hitai-ate which consisted of a white cloth and metal plate showing the symbol of Kumogakure.

 _No way._ Naruto thought as he watched Killer B step fully into the open.

 **Well, this is new.** Kurama said, sensing his brethren nearby.

Seeing the distraction on Naruto's face Zabuza shunshined behind the blonde, intent on separating his head from his shoulders when twin slivers of light flickered in the corner of his eye. Spinning Kubikiribōchō around he deflected a pair of senbon that had been directed at his neck away and leapt back as Kakashi kicked him in the stomach to lessen the blow, this put him into the path of a more dangerous attack.

"Lariat!" B shouted as his arm slammed into the back of Zabuza's neck. The rogue-Nin tumbled bonelessly across the ground as a second pair of senbon darted into his neck and a Kirigakure Hunter-Nin appeared on the branch of a nearby tree.

"I thank you all for your assistance." The Hunter-Nin shunshined to Zabuza's side. "Now, if you'll excuse me." Picking up Zabuza's body and Kubikiribōchō the Hunter-Nin shunshined away.

"Who was that and why did they take his body?" Sakura asked.

"Kirigakure Hunter-Nin." Kakashi answered, shifting his gaze from where Zabuza had been to where B nod stood. "A shinobi's body can hold a lot of secrets about their home village, Hunter-Nin dispose of the bodies of their villages rogue-nin to keep those secrets safe. Though usually they dispose of the body where they find it."

"Probably took it away because of us being here." Sasuke said.

"…Maybe." Kakashi murmured, putting the issue to the back of his mind for now.

"Thanks for the help." Naruto said, taking a step towards B when Kakashi pulled him back by his collar.

"You have my thanks for protecting my student but if I may ask, what's the Raikage's brother doing so far from home?" Kakashi said, still on high alert with his Sharingan focused on B. "Our villages aren't exactly on friendly terms at the moment."

"In the middle of wanderlust, Killer B only did what was just. The main man was sick of being cooped up, took a hike and found this lost pup." B rapped.

"…I have no idea what you're saying."

"It's okay Kakashi-Sensei." Naruto said, finally getting out of the Jonin's grasp. "I speak rap, he said he was bored being stuck at home and decided to take a walk. He found Pakkun and I'm guessing wanted to reunite him with his owner. Seeing I was in trouble he helped out cause it was the right thing to do."

"Hell of a 'walk' between here and Kumogakure. Also, I don't have an owner and this idiot won't listen to anything I say." Pakkun complained struggling in B's grip.

"Truth he's speaks, kid with the blonde peaks."

"Naruto, be careful." Kakashi said, tensed for whatever might happen.

"It's alright, he'd like me." Naruto replied, looking over his shoulder at his Sensei before turning back to B. "Pup's with the grown up. We can intro, if you want to know."

"Naruto." Kakashi's tone made to point that the blonde was going too far.

"You want to know me? I'm the notorious Killer B." B released Pakkun, who ran over to stand next to Kakashi, as he moved his arms around in a rap manner. "Working with A cause no one else can, except for me the main man. Yeeeaaahhaaa!"

"My turn to educate, so yo' knowledge be sate." Naruto then pointed to each of his teammates in turn. "Kakashi reads porn in every room, Sakura's a cherry just starting to bloom, Sasuke's buried deep in gloom and I'm Naruto the next Hokage, boom!" Naruto punched the air before pointing at his teammates again and continuing ignoring the looks of disapproval and annoyance from Kakashi. "Sensei is his role, she's got lions in her heart, he's got a fire in his soul and I've got a beast in my belly that's too hard to control." While he was rapping Naruto's arms moved around in the same manner as B's did.

"Naruto!" Kakashi shouted as he watched B's eyebrows raise in surprise. B's surprise faded quickly as he took a step towards Naruto and held out his fist.

"Don't be a chump, prove it with a fist bump." Naruto put his fist to B's without hesitation and the pair stood still while their demons connected.

 **Gyūki, it's been a long time.** Kurama said with a grin as the Bijuu looked at each other, their fists pressed together like their hosts. Gyūki was fully released while Kurama was reaching through the bars of his cage.

 _Kurama, you've certainly become more civil. Care to tell me why you seem to be helping your host?_ The 8 tails replied.

 **Oh, I'll tell you but you probably won't believe it.** Kurama chuckled before starting his explanation. Once he finished there were a few minutes of silence as Gyūki thought about what he'd just heard.

 _Well, you are right, I'm having trouble believing you but there are certain things you've said that neither you nor your host could know without being in Kumogakure to see it for yourselves. I'm inclined to believe that you're telling the truth, the question now is what do we do to stop it from happening?_

 **That is something we're still working on, for now spread the message onto Matabi and your host. Then I suggest getting as strong as possible and try to get Kumogakure prepared for a possible world war but don't let the blowhard of a Kage try invading other lands. Naruto will be doing the same in Konohagakure and if event play out the same that Naruto and I saw we'll try and get Shukaku to go along with the plan.**

 _Good luck convincing him, last I heard he'd given himself over to bloodlust._

 **Leave that to Naruto and I, if all goes to plan Shukaku will help. He is a Bijuu after all, self-preservation is our highest priority.** Kurama looked away from Gyūki as if he'd seen something. **We're about to have some company, time for us to part.** The two demons nodded to each other and separated their fists.

B and Naruto separated their fists seconds after their Bijuu did and took a step back from each other. Before any words could be exchanged a woman burst through the tree line and landed behind B. She was followed by another woman, a young girl and a young man, the first woman looked to be in her mid-twenties, she had pale skin and sandy blonde hair bound in a ponytail with bandages, her eyes were dark and she wore red lipstick. A short sleeved black and purple blouse covered her torso as matching black pants covered her legs, both her blouse and pants had a cloud-like design on them. Purple fingerless gloves were on her hands, with bandages wrapped around her forearms an additional a chain of blue beads circled her left forearm over the bandages. Her outfit was finished with standard shinobi sandals, a kunai holster on her right thigh, a red sash around her waist and a Kumogakure hitai-ate on her forehead.

The second woman had chin length blonde hair and was a similar age to the first. Her eyes were blue and she wore an aloof expression. She wore grey robes which were open enough to reveal some of her considerable bust and the mesh armour she wore beneath her robes. A pair of red armguards covered her forearms high boots protected her lower legs and a modified flak jacket was fastened around her waist like a girdle. A tanto was strapped horizontally to her lower back and one hand rested on the handle. The woman didn't seem to be wearing a hitai-ate.

The young girl was only slightly older then Naruto currently was, meaning she was in her early to mid-teens. She had the same dark skin as B, red hair and amber eyes. She wore a simple long dress with short sleeves and slightly frilled edges covered with the same type of body armour as B. She wore her hitai-ate like a bandana, black boots with white soles, a simple pair of yellow earrings hung from her ears and a long sword was strapped to her back.

The young man was similar age to the girl, he had short spiky white hair and dark eyes. His outfit consisted of an overly long shirt complete with hood, red bandages were wrapped around his forearms and lower legs. His flak jacket mirrored that of B's and the young girl's. A lollipop stick hung from his mouth and he carried a long sword on his back, his hitai-ate was firmly tied around his forehead on black fabric.

The four Kumo-nin looked at Naruto and the rest of Team 7 in surprise.

"They have Lord B!" The girl with red hair reached for her sword as she rushed forward as Sasuke did the same. The woman with chin length blonde hair stopped the red-haired girl as Naruto tackled Sasuke to the ground.

"Article 12." Kakashi said quickly, getting an understanding nod from the two blonde women.

"Article 12?" Sakura asked.

"Article 12 of the Shinobi code." The woman with a ponytail replied. "Don't they teach you anything in Konoha? It can be invoked between Shinobi of different villages to allow peaceful negotiations in unexpected circumstances." The woman noticed the spiral emblem on Naruto's sleeve as he struggled to hold Sasuke down. "Hey cute kid, what's your name?"

Sasuke stopped his struggling to glare at the woman and opened his mouth to answer but the woman interrupted before he could get any words out.

"Not you, the blonde kid."

In his surprise Naruto fell back as Sasuke pushed him off and stalked over to Kakashi. Brushing dust off himself, Naruto formed a ram seal and flared his chakra.

"Why are you trying to dispel a genjutsu?" The other blonde woman asked having let the red-haired girl go once she'd calmed down.

"He's the one who get the attention, not me." Naruto explained, jerking a thumb towards Sasuke. "Being called cute has never happened to me before." The blonde with the ponytail raised an eyebrow.

"Really? Cause the whiskers are cute and you've got beautiful eyes, not like dark and pasty there. Anyway, what's your name?"

Out of the corner of his eye Naruto saw Kakashi subtly shake his head. Chuckling lightly Naruto gave the woman the most charming smile he could muster.

"Isn't it manners to introduce yourself first?" The woman chuckled lightly, raising her hand to her mouth and resting the side of her index finger on her lips. She moved her hand away with a slight flick of her wrist, a small smirk playing across her red lips.

"That's true, my name is Yugito Nii. This is Samui, Karui and Omoi, it seems as though you've already met Lord B." Yugito took a step forward and smiled at Naruto. "Just out of curiosity, what's that symbol on you sleeve?" Looking at the spiral Naruto was about to answer that it was his clan symbol but Kurama's rumbling voice stopped him.

 **Remember what Kumo tried last time they found out about an Uzumaki.** Naruto's mind brought up the story of how Kumo had tried to kidnap his mother when she was still a student. Thinking quickly Naruto came up with the most convincing lie he could.

"Don't you know curiosity killed the cat? But since it's a beautiful woman asking, I don't see any harm in answering. It's just something the old man gave me when I was a kid, it's kind of like a good luck charm. No idea what it means though." Naruto noted the look of surprise and suspicion on Yugito's face as he mentioned a cat while staring directly at her.

"Ah, but curiosity can bring a lot of good things." Samui said. "Have you ever been curious about life in Kumogakure?"

Everyone's eyes widened at the thinly veiled suggestion of Naruto defecting, taking a few seconds to recover Naruto gave Yugito and Samui a flirty smirk.

"I don't think this is the best place for a conversation like this, how about dinner? I know a great ramen place in Konoha, if you'd care to join me after my mission ends." The two women looked slightly shocked at the fact Naruto was flirting with them before smiling.

"You're quite forward aren't you?" Samui said.

"There's two of us and only one of you. Are you sure you're man enough to handle the pair of us?" Yugito almost purred. Naruto just grinned widely.

"Ladies, there's plenty of me to go around." Clicking his fingers Naruto's clones appeared in the trees surrounding them. At first the two women just thought they were normal Bushin but when the clones dropped to the ground, kicking up small cloud of dust and showing they had shadows the women realized that they weren't normal clones.

Yugito quickly counted the clones and came up with an estimate of around forty, she tapped the numbers and a message out in code against Samui's leg. Seeing her fellow blonde's head dip slightly Yugito knew that Samui was willing to go along with the plan.

"You really are special aren't you? I'm going to have to insist that you come to Kumogakure with us." Yugito's fingernails started to lengthen as Samui's hand rested on her tanto's handle, Karui and Omoi copied her actions reaching for their own swords.

Naruto turned slightly so his face was hidden from the rest of Team 7 and let his happy go lucky mask slip away. Now his face showed the visage of a battle-hardened veteran, his blue eyes had turned cold and the grin he wore had vanished from existence. This wasn't the same person that had been there seconds before, this was a person who'd seen the horrors of war and survived even though part of them had died on the battlefield.

"I'm not going to lie." Naruto's voice was soft, almost a whisper but carried a weight that no-one expected from someone so young. "The thought of living in a different village has crossed my mind every now and again." This got a wide-eyed stare from Sakura and Sasuke, they both knew how much Naruto loved Konohagakure but never would've suspected that he'd thought about leaving. Kakashi on the other hand knew what Naruto had to deal with as a child and sympathized, he didn't show any outward reaction though he kept his focus on the Kumo-nin in front of him. "I didn't have the best childhood, I'm an orphan, I don't know who my parents are and as far as I know no-one else does. I was always the one to be blamed for anything bad that happened in the village, okay, a lot of the time I did cause it but only because of how people treated me. I acted out like that just so people would acknowledge me, so they'd see me and not looked through me like I didn't exist. The glares, the anger, the hate, I welcomed them and everything else that was directed at me because it was the only attention I could get. Out of the entire village there were only three, maybe four people that didn't hate me but from them I got pity." Naruto paused to take a breath and let out a dry bark of laughter. "I think I would've preferred the hate. I was an outcast, no friends, no family and I was looked at like I was the worse piece of shit they'd ever scrapped off their sandals but that doesn't change the fact that Konoha is my home and I'm not going anywhere with you." The Kumo-nin all started to draw their weapons but paused when Naruto raised a hand. "You didn't allow me to introduce myself or my teammates. Kakashi Hatake of the Sharingan, the Copy Ninja and son of the White Fang. He's the Jonin Sensei of Team 7 which consists of Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno and myself, Naruto. We're destined to be the next generation of the Sannin, if you want to try and fight us be my guest." Naruto paused for a second as he closed his eyes before opening them again, showing his blue eyes were now red and his pupils were slits, his whisker marks were darker and a thin haze of red charka coated his body. "But you won't be leaving this clearing in one piece, I can promise you that." A feral grin showed off his sharpened canines. "Believe it."

"You're…, Lord B?" Yugito started before B went and stood next to Naruto, putting his hand on the blonde's shoulder.

"Play it cool, fool ya fool. Ain't no need to fight, declining it your right." B looked at his fellow Kumo-nin. "This ends now, we're going to exit with a bow." B patted Naruto's shoulder once and walked over to Yugito and Samui. "This stays between us, no complaints or fuss. And don't tell my bro, he doesn't need to know." Yugito opened her mouth to protest but B just stared at her. "That's an order from your Lord, disobey and you'll pay a price you can't afford." Closing her mouth Yugito simply nodded and retracted her claws. "Time to go, see you round Naruto. Yeeeaaahhaaa!" B held his fist out again and waited for Naruto to bump it. Keeping his eyes focused on Yugito and Samui Naruto slowly raised his arm bumped his fist against B's. With that done four tentacles sprouted from B's back and wrapped around Yugito, Samui, Karui and Omoi before B leapt into the trees with Yugito complaining about how slimy it felt and scolding him for wandering off again.

Naruto let Kurama's chakra recede as B carried the other Kumo-nin away, his clones started to dispel as the last group of them came into the clearing with Tazuna.

"Naruto, where did you learn to do that?" Sakura asked, causing Naruto to turn and face her.

"Learn what?"

"To talk like that, you were flirting with them."

"So what, they were pretty."

"How did you even know how to do that?"

"I didn't sleep through all our classes, I remember some stuff."

"Which class was that from?"

"Infiltration and seduction techniques. Never thought I'd have to use them though." Naruto shrugged, there wasn't much to it beyond that. "Didn't the girls have a class like that? I know we got separated into groups for it. We had to try and get a secret out of a girl without using force, Sasuke nearly failed the class cause he just kept saying 'Tell me what I want to know.'" Kakashi's mouth twitched as he hid a smile at the rather accurate impersonation of Sasuke's monotone.

"Well, we did but I er…" Sakura trailed off and blushed as she made a point of not looking towards Sasuke. "You were always asking me on a date, why didn't you try talking like that?"

"Everything we learnt at the academy is meant to be used against enemies, you're not an enemy." Naruto's reply was met with silence as Sakura didn't know what to say next.

"Why you?" The sound of Sasuke's voice caught everyone's attention.

"Huh?" Was Naruto's articulate response as he turned to face the Uchiha.

"Why did they want you?" There was the 1000ryo question, it had been hovering around in Sakura's mind too. If they'd wanted Sasuke she'd understand, but Naruto? What would they want with him.

"Yeah, they were asking about your name. Why would they do that?" Sakura asked.

"Hell if I know."

"It's because he's an Uzumaki." Kakashi said, moving his hitai-ate back down to cover his Sharingan. "The Uzumaki were a powerful clan when Konoha was founded but they died out."

"How powerful could they be if they died out?" Sasuke questioned as Kakashi got them all moving again towards Nami no Kuni.

"Konohagakure was the only village that didn't fear them, the reason the Uzumaki died out was because Kumogakure and Kirigakure allied with some of the smaller nations and attacked. By the time Konoha found out and managed to muster a force strong enough to help it was too late, there are some Uzumaki that managed to escape but it's not know how many or where they are now. Not being there for our closest ally is one of the darkest stains on Konoha's history." A dark chuckle came from Kakashi. "They took the majority of the attacking force down though, a well-trained Uzumaki in their home territory is someone you never want to face."

"Naruto's an orphan, how do you know he's actually an Uzumaki?" Sakura asked.

"By his chakra, the Uzumaki were known for having enormous chakra reserves and exceptional longevity. As a new born Naruto had more chakra than your average Chunin, now his reserves are larger than mine and they'll only get bigger."

"That still doesn't explain why they were after him." Sasuke grunted.

"Kumogakure would've had Naruto impregnate their strongest kunoichi. Imagine a group of shinobi with chakra reserves like Naruto's, now imagine that they had an army like that. Kumogakure's main focus is on military power, having Naruto they would've been more powerful than ever before."

"Wait a minute!" Naruto shouted. "I would've had sexy times with those blondes? Can I change my mind and go find them?" Naruto's answer was an unimpressed expression from Kakashi and a punch to the head from Sakura. "Okay I get it, not the time for jokes."

"We need to get to Nami no Kuni as soon as possible." Kakashi said. "Pakkun, give me those scrolls back. There's something I need to add to them."

"Sure thing Kakashi." Pakkun dropped the scrolls on the ground, Kakashi knelt down and opening the one for the Hokage adding a few more lines to it before closing it and handing the two scrolls back to Pakkun.

"Now I need you to get to Konoha as quickly as you can…and try not to get stopped again."

"If that weirdo tries to grab me again, I'll chew his beard off." Pakkun picked up the scrolls and dashed into the trees, leaving a dust trail behind him.

"Now that's done, we're heading out again." Kakashi stood up and staggered to one side. "Damn, used too much chakra. I'm out of shape." Naruto quickly got hold of Kakashi and helped the Jonin steady himself. "We're going to have a talk about what just happened later Naruto."

"Yes Sensei." Naruto sighed, knowing he probably had some explaining to do. With that said, Team 7 and Tazuna continued on their way and apart from an incident with some bandits they made it to Nami no Kuni safely, reaching Tazuna's house and letting Kakashi rest so he could recover his chakra.

 **That's it for now, let me know what you think.**

 **Until Next Time**

 **Basic Trainer**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello readers, I'm not dead.**

 **I know I say this a lot and it doesn't make it any less true but I'm sorry it's taken so long to update. Between life, work and quite a few attacks of writer's block it's been hard finding the time to write even when if I knew what I wanted to write.**

 **Here's the chapter, I hope it was worth the wait.**

Chapter 5

Practice and Preparation

Naruto sighed as he felt the memories of a Shadow Clone flow into his mind, they still couldn't get the chakra shell for the Rasengan to stablise but at least he now knew another way to not do it. He was sat on the roof of Tazuna's house keeping watch, he should've woken Sakura a couple of hours ago for her shift but decided to let her sleep, it had been a hard day for all of them and he wanted some time to himself.

From what his memories were telling him, Zabuza having back up, Bee and the others turning up, none of that had happened. Naruto had been fairly confident when taking the mission after overcoming the original shock of how quickly it had come up but now? Even though they weren't massive changes they still could've lead to big problems.

Pulling a kunai out of his pouch and idly spinning it around his fingers Naruto let his mind drift back a few hours to what had happened when he'd arrived at Tazuna's house.

 _Flashback_

"My house is just ahead." Tazuna said as he led the group through the village. A piercing scream stopped anyone from saying anything in return. "Tsunami…" The bridge builder whispered before taking a step forward. Naruto unceremoniously dropped Kakashi and pulled Tazuna back, pushing him towards Sakura and Sasuke.

"Keep him here and be ready for an attack." Naruto barked the order before dashing towards the scream, arriving at Tazuna's house he found the door broken open and brutal laughter. Without a second thought he leapt into the house and saw six of Gato's thugs huddled around Tsunami, shreds of her clothes were scattered across the floor and Inari was laying on the other side of the room unconscious with a small cut on his forehead. _Kurama._

The fox demon didn't reply other than letting some of his chakra flow into Naruto's system. Much like the show of force against the Kumo-nin earlier that day, Naruto's eyes turned red and slitted, his whisker marks darken, his nails grew into claws and his teeth sharpened. He dropped his bag before shrugging off his jacket and leaping over the thugs landing between them and Tsunami, he held his jacket back to Tsunami and as soon as he felt the weight lifted from his hand he went on the attack.

The thugs didn't stand a chance against him, the first one was down before any of them could blink, the second shortly afterwards, the third actually managed to reach his weapon before Naruto broke his arm in three places and kicked him across the room. The remaining three charged at Naruto while drawing knifes and hatchets from their belts, staying low he ducked under their attacks and lashed out with a vicious uppercut knocking the fourth thug out of the fight, the last two tried to trap Naruto in a pincer movement but were taken down by a split kick to the nose.

 **That last move was just showing off.** Kurama said as he pulled his chakra back.

 _I needed to take them out before anyone came to investigate._ Naruto replied as he pulled some ninja wire from his bag and started tying the thugs up.

 **I understand that but by doing that you've split your pants.** The fox chuckled.

 _I thought it was a bit drafty, I'll fix them later._ He continued to tie the thugs up and just as he finished Sasuke appeared at the door, with a kunai in each hand. He looked around the room, taking in the shreds of clothes, broken door, tied up thugs and Tsunami fussing over her son, with Naruto's jacket and blanket from his bag covering her.

"Clear?" He asked.

"Clear, bring them in." Naruto sighed in reply, taking deep breath to calm his heartrate and get control of the adrenaline that was flowing through his body. Sasuke nodded and disappeared, returning a few seconds later supporting Kakashi's weight as Sakura and Tazuna in front of him.

"Tsunami!" Tazuna shouted as he ran to his daughter. "What happened? Are you and Inari okay?"

"We-we're fine father, the blonde boy saved us before anything happened." Tsunami said hugging her father.

"Thank you." Tazuna said gratefully.

"I just did what was right." Naruto replied, rubbing the back of his head. "I'll fix everything up while you look after your family."

"I'll go on watch." Sasuke said as helped Kakashi to a chair before he walked out of the door and leapt up to the roof.

"I'll see to any injuries." Sakura added as she pulled a medical kit out of her bag.

"Am I even needed on this mission?" Kakashi asked.

"You need to rest Kakashi-Sensei." Sakura replied. "You've used too much chakra. We can handle everything till you've recovered." With that said Sakura walked over to the reunited family and upon Tsunami's insistence, started to treat Inari's head wound.

"Naruto, there's an empty room upstairs. Take your Sensei up there so he can rest comfortably." Tazuna said. "It's the second door on the left." After giving the old man a nod of understanding Naruto picked up his bag, helped Kakashi to his feet and took him upstairs to the room. As he left his teammates to their tasks Naruto heard Sakura start to giggle

"Close the door Naruto." Kakashi said as soon as they crossed the room's threshold, the blonde nudged the door closed with his foot before lowering Kakashi onto the bedroll. "There's a few things we need to talk about."

"I know." Naruto replied, he thought about trying to get out of this talk but the edge in Kakashi's voice told him to there was no avoiding this.

"Sit down." Naruto dropped to the floor and crossed his legs. "You know what I want to talk about, don't you." That wasn't a question, just a statement of fact but Naruto nodded in answer anyway. "You accessed the chakra of the Nine Tails, you told those Kumo-Nin that you're a Jinchurikki and I saw no hesitation in your eyes or your aim when that thug had hold of Sakura. You were aiming to kill, without remorse and you would've if Zabuza hadn't beaten you to it. Too much is happening right now to get into this properly, I will be telling Lord Hokage about this when we return to the village but for now I've like some sort of explanation." Kakashi's one visible eye bore into Naruto as he waited for an answer.

 **Blame me, tell the Cyclops that I offered you a deal. I help you fight so that I don't disappear into the void for a decade if you die.** Kurama said quickly. **It'll keep him off your back for a little while at least.**

"The Kyūbi. He doesn't like being in me but he likes the idea of dying less, I'm not the best ninja, I'm the dead last, outside of the village I wouldn't stand a chance on my own against a strong enemy, the Kyūbi gives me power to fight and I keep us both alive."

"That explains using the fox's chakra now explain the Kumo-Nin."

"The Kyūbi told me about Killer B and that his 'tenant' could sense the fox in me, it was better to just come out with it and try to gain B's trust. The fist-bump let the Kyūbi talk to the 8-Tails and convince him to keep us a secret."

"How exactly did he do that?"

 **Self-preservation.**

"Self-preservation, the Kyūbi said all of the Tailed Beasts want to stay alive and if my identity was told to the Raikage then when he eventually came back from the void, he'd head straight for Kumo and eat B."

"That may stop B but not the other Kumo-Nin."

"They'll listen to B, Iruka-Sensei told us that Kumogakure is like a giant army. B's a higher rank so they'll follow his orders, the respect him too much to go against him."

"You seem strangely confident in B, almost like you know him well."

"Growing up as the village scapegoat, I had to learn to get a good read on people quickly. B's a good man, a very strange man but I know I can trust him."

"We'll leave that subject to one side for now." Kakashi said with a sigh, running a hand through his hair. "This is something I never thought I'd have to deal with this early with a Genin team. You went for the kill, without hesitation or remorse. If I'm being honest, I thought Sasuke would've been the first." He held up a hand as Naruto opened his mouth. "Don't try and deny it I saw it in your eyes. For that split second, you looked like a veteran who's been through a world war, I saw the way I used to be in your eyes Naruto. What happened to make you like that?"

"I don't know, I just reacted when that guy started talking like that. I couldn't let something like that happen to Sakura."

"That still doesn't explain the look in your eyes."

 _I'm going to have to come clean._ Naruto thought to Kurama.

 **Not yet, we need more time to prepare.**

 _Well, what the hell can I say? If I don't say anything I'm getting a private conversation with Ibiki, if I tell the truth I'm getting a psych eval and if I say it was you helping me we're both getting slapped with a stronger seal._

 **Say it was something in your past, you had to fend for yourself and killed a rat for food. You thought of that guy as a rat.**

 _Like anyone's going to believe that._

 **Fine then, you're on your own.** Kurama cut the connection between them and left Naruto to find a way out on his own.

"Naruto, I'm waiting for an answer." Kakashi said.

"I…I can't explain it, I saw one of my precious people being threatened and my body acted."

"…Alright, but we'll return to this after the mission." Kakashi rubbed his neck, he really needed to rest but this conversation couldn't wait. "I know you lied about Lord Third and his Killing Intent, there was only one time he used that on you and that was when you thought it was a good idea to fill his hat with glue and slam it onto his head. He didn't make it as intense as Zabuza was, you should've been paralyzed just like Sasuke and Sakura. So how did you resist Zabuza's KI?"

"Kyūbi snapped me out of it. He said something about having an ability to sense emotions and brought me out of it. I thought it might mess with Zabuza's head to see a fresh Genin not react to it."

"That fits with your explanation of the deal you have with the Kyūbi. One last question then I need to rest, how did you about my father? I make a point of not mentioning him and I know that there's no record of it, I asked Lord Fourth to redact any connection between my father and myself."

"Why?" Naruto asked, stalling for time so he could think of an explanation that Kakashi would buy, at least for the moment.

"Naruto, I'm the one asking the questions here, answer me."

"I'll answer if you do." The pair stared at each other for a minute before Kakashi sighed, he really couldn't be bothered dealing with this right now.

"…For the same reason you act out, I wanted to be known for who I am. You act out so people acknowledge you, I cut the connections so that I could make a name for myself and not from my father's name. Now answer my question, how do you know?" Naruto nodded, he'd used the time given by Kakashi's answer wisely and had thought up an excuse that Kakashi should believe.

"Guy-Sensei, when we were training he went into one of his speeches about a 'youth spring of fire' or something like that I tuned most of it out but I listened enough to hear him say his eternal rival was the son of the White Fang." Kakashi studied Naruto's face to look for any sign of a lie but couldn't find anything, he sighed and cracked his neck.

"That does sound like something Guy would do. Alright Naruto, you and Sasuke set a perimeter and lay a few traps, we shouldn't be expecting any unwanted visitors but it's better to be safe than sorry. After that settle in for the night, you take first watch, Sakura can take the second and Sasuke can take third. Be on your guard, I don't think Zabuza's finished with us just yet."

"Zabuza's still out there?"

"The Hunter-nin should've burned his body where it was found, not taken it somewhere else. Zabuza's got an accomplice, we need to be ready for anything. Tell Sakura and Sasuke but let Tazuna look after his family for now, we can tell them in a day or two." Kakashi lay back on the bed roll. "Wake me in a few hours and update me on what you've done." With that said Kakashi closed his visible eye and Naruto left the room, before returning to the lower floor Naruto opened his bag and changed out of his damaged pants. He took out his spare pair and quickly changed into them.

 _Flashback end_

Naruto tensed as he felt something on the roof behind him, he jumped to his feet and spun around with his kunai ready. Letting out a held breath, Naruto relaxed when he saw it was Sakura.

"Don't sneak up on me like that Sakura, I could've hurt you."

"I gave the signal that I was coming, you didn't reply so I came to find out why." She replied as she walked closer.

"Sorry, just thinking." Naruto let out a dry bark of laughter. "I know, it's surprising isn't it. Me thinking."

"No, not that surprising." Sakura said as she sat on the edge of the roof, patting next to her. Naruto raised an eyebrow but did as she silently requested and sat next to her. "You're always thinking of something, how to prank someone, what you'll do when you're Hokage stuff like that." She was silent for a minute before speaking again. "W-What you said to those Kumo-nin, did you mean it?"

"About us being the next Sannin? Damn right I did, we're going to be in the history books, kid's will want action figure of us, they'll want to be us when they grow up…."

"That's not what I meant." Sakura interrupted. "I meant about leaving the village. You love Konoha, you want to be Hokage. How could you have thought about leaving? You'd really give up on your dream, just like that?" She watched Naruto's face to gauge his reaction, a multitude of emotions rippled across it. Love and pride she expected to see but anger, depression and hate caught her completely by surprise.

"Sakura." He sighed, looking out at the water before them. "Everything I said to them was true, I'm an orphan, I've been alone all of my life apart from the little bit of time the Old Man would put aside so I could talk to him. I never had friends, I mean I hung around with Shikamaru, Choji and Kiba but I never got the feeling that they were really my friends, it was like they kept me around to be a scapegoat. My parents…I know next to nothing about them, all I know is what the Old Man told me which was that they love me. He won't tell me their names, said something about them having a lot of enemies and if it got out who I was then I'd be either assassinated or kidnapped." Naruto sighed again and leant back a little to look at the starry sky, his voice turning wistful. "I can understand that but I'd still like to know something about them, favourite food, hair colour, anything."

Rubbing the back of his head he turned his attention back to the water in front of them. Naruto's tone turned bitter as he spoke again. "Everything that went wrong in the village would be blamed on me, everything from a piece of dropped litter to arson. Even when I was in the Academy, sat right in front of Iruka-Sensei, there were still people blaming me for vandalism and theft on the other side of the village." He shrugged, "Okay, I could do that now but this was before I knew how to make Shadow Clones. I'm hated for something, I always have been, I don't know what it is but all the adults do, I know that much and because of how they act the other kids do the same. I've been beaten up by gangs, had rotten fruit thrown at me, chased out of shops as soon as I've walked in the door." Naruto paused to calm himself down, his voice had been getting louder and his tone darker as he spoke.

"After years of that, can you blame me for thinking about leaving? The Old Man did what he could but there's only so much one man can do against a village. Put yourself in my place, no-one looking out for you, everyone taking every opportunity to attack you in one way or another. Can you honestly tell me you wouldn't wonder about what it would be like if you lived somewhere else?" He turned to face Sakura, staring directly into her eyes letting her see the tears welled up in his. "Being hated hurts but not as much as being pitied or treated as if you don't even exist."

Sakura didn't know what to do, Naruto had always been so happy and confident seeing him like this didn't sit right with her. She knew that she needed to say something to cheer him up but nothing came to mind. Wanting to help anyway Sakura just started to speak, she was the smartest kunoichi from their class she'd trust her intelligence and her heart to steer her right.

"Naruto, I can't say I know what is must've felt like living like that, not having anyone there for you but if you want, I'll be your friend. I know we don't really see eye to eye, I've hit you and said a lot of mean things about you so I'll understand if you don't want to be friends with me but if you ever need someone to talk too, just ask." She put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a small smile. Naruto wiped his eyes with the cuff of his jacket, the broken look in his eyes slowly mending before her eyes.

"I'd be honoured to be your friend Sakura." He said softly, returning her smile before wincing as she pulled on his ear. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, what happened to being friends?"

"Oh, we are friends, this is just a little punishment for not waking me when it was time for my watch." She gave him a sickly-sweet smile.

"It's been a long day and I wanted everyone to get some rest." Naruto whimpered as Sakura pinched his ear harder.

"Doesn't 'everyone' include you?" There was that sweet tone again, how could something that sounded so nice be so scary?

"Yeah but I'm never tired." Naruto pumped a fist into the air and grabbed his bicep. "Have you ever seen me worn out?"

"Well, no but…" Sakura faltered.

"Then it's fine, this won't be the first time I've stayed up all night. Go back inside and sleep."

"No. I'll stay here and help you keep watch." Sakura gave him a small smile. "Two pairs of eyes are better than one after all." Naruto just looked at her blankly. "What?" Naruto made his signature plus hand seal and a pair of Shadow Clones poofed into existence behind him. "Oh yeah…well an extra set can't hurt, can it?" Naruto shrugged and took off his jacket.

"Here," He said draping it over Sakura's shoulders. "There's a cold breeze, you could get sick."

"What about you? You'll get cold."

"Don't worry about it, I've dealt with worse."

"Worse?" Sakura asked but was only answered with a tense silence. "Oh…, sorry."

"Don't worry about it." With nothing else to be said the two Genin fell into a comfortable silence as they kept watch over Tazuna and his family. The only sounds to be heard were birds, waves and the thugs tied to the posts holding Tazuna's home above the water thrashing about in the ocean.

The Following Morning

After Naruto was chewed out by Kakashi for taking watch for the whole night, they all sat down for breakfast. Team Seven were formally introduced to Tazuna's family and treated to Tsunami's excellent cooking, while they ate Sakura asked a question.

"Kakashi-Sensei, the weird guy from yesterday…why did he have tentacles come out of his back?" Tazuna and his family looked to the Jonin to hear his explanation, Inari tried to look disinterested by keeping his eyes on his breakfast and Tsunami was sewing the hole in Naruto's pants after he split them the day before.

"Huh?" Kakashi said, looking over the top of his adult literature. "Oh that, well there are many things in this world that can be explained in many ways. It may have been a bloodline like the Sharingan or Byakugan, a family technique like those possessed by the Yamanaka and Nara clans, he may have even been a Jinchūriki." Kakashi turned his attention back to his book as Naruto resisted the urge to react.

"A Jinchūriki? What's that?"

"A Jinchūriki is someone who has one of the Tailed Beasts sealed inside of them."

"Couldn't they kill it like the Fourth Hokage did?" Again, Naruto fought against his reactions.

"Lord Fourth sacrificed himself to…deal with the Nine Tails." Kakashi hid his hesitation by turning the page of his book. "A lot of people say they'll sacrifice themselves for their home, their family or whatever they've pledged themselves to protect but when the time arrives and demands a live to save others, not everyone is willing to pay that price. Some run and some try to bargain, while others look into different options."

"So, Jinchūriki are as strong as the Tailed Beasts?" Sasuke asked, breaking his silence.

"They can be, it all depends on how much control they have over their Tailed Beast." Peeking over his book Kakashi saw confusion on Sakura and Sasuke's faces. "Think of it like this, you're the Jinchūriki of the Four Tails and let's say that the Four Tails' power is represented by four kunai, a storage seal is on your skin and represents the fact that the Four Tails is sealed inside you. On your own you only have access to your own chakra but with training you can start to draw on the power of the Tailed Beast inside you. The first stage would be calling on and controlling one tail's worth of power, in this analogy that would translate to calling out one kunai from the storage seal, the second stage would be calling out a second kunai. The process continues until you gain control over all of the Tailed Beasts chakra."

"Sounds easy enough."

"There is something I've missed that wouldn't fit with the kunai analogy. From what I know the Tailed Beasts possess some level of intelligence and will fight you every step of the way, when you draw on their power they in turn can influence you. They will do whatever they have to in order to release themselves from their host. Only those who possess exceptional willpower and powerful chakra are chosen to host a Tailed Beast."

"You mean someone like Naruto?" Sakura asked, Naruto couldn't stop himself flinching at the question.

"True, Naruto does possess the necessary criteria to hold a Tailed Beast but his personality isn't what is usually looked for in a Jinchūriki. He's too unpredictable, too free willed, complete and utter loyalty is a trait that comes first for a lot of villages. While Naruto is loyal he's loyal to Lord Hokage, not the village. As you heard yesterday, Naruto has a number of reasons to have…grievances against the village so that would make him a threat should he decide that he's had enough. When a village creates a Jinchūriki they don't want to risk it being someone that could take all of that power and turn it against them or worse give into the power and release the beast inside of them." Silence fell over the group for a minute before Kakashi spoke again. "Putting this topic to one side, it's time to talk about how we're going to proceed." Kakashi snapped his book closed and focused on Tazuna. "It would be best if you could stay here for the next couple of days, I'm still recovering from my battle against Zabuza and I wouldn't put it past Gato to attempt another attack as soon as you appear on the bridge. Our back-up should have arrived either tomorrow night or the following morning and you can carry on building the bridge then, Naruto can give you a small army of Shadow Clones to help with the building efforts, whether it's actually building the bridge or just carrying things."

"Why can't his clones be used for protection now?" Tazuna asked.

"Because Naruto isn't experienced enough and therefore neither are his clones, add to that the facts that they dispel with one hit and Gato will more than likely have his lieutenants join in the battle now that he no doubt knows that you've hired Shinobi. It is in all of our best interests to wait until our back-up gets here and I've recovered more." Kakashi turned his attention to the three Genin. "Till that happens I want the three of you to keep watch and train your chakra control. You know the tree walking exercise, so use that as much as possible. You'll build up your chakra reserves too, not by much but I have a feeling we're going to need every bit of improvement no matter how small it may be."

"I have a question." Sasuke said. "You've got the Sharingan, how?" Although it was phrased as a question it sounded more like a demand.

"That is a long story and one I don't feel like reliving." Kakashi sighed and took out his book again. "For now, I'll just say that a friend gave it to me."

"Why would he give someone his Sharingan?" Again, the question was more of a demand. Kakashi stayed quiet and opened his book. "Tell me WHY!" Sasuke shouted, moving to tear the book from Kakashi's hand only to end up face first on the ground with Kakashi holding his arms behind his back and a foot on the back of his head before he could blink.

"If you want to know why, you have to earn the right to ask that question first." Kakashi spoke calmly in his usual relaxed manner but there was an underlying tone that said he was tired of Sasuke's attitude while still reading his book. "Genin Uchiha, your insubordination has been noted and will be brought before the Hokage. Normally something like this is dealt with on the spot but given the circumstances we currently find ourselves in, I cannot deal with the confinement of a team member without putting the rest of the team in jeopardy. There is one thing I can do though that should instill at least some form of common sense into you." Kakashi took hold of two of Sasuke's fingers and broke them, ignoring the cry of pain. "The normal punishment would be a chakra suppression seal and breaking both of your arms, you've gotten off easy." Kakashi got off of Sasuke and unclipped one of the pockets of his flak jacket, catching a scroll with practiced ease as it fell out. "Sakura." The pinkette flinched and turned to the Jonin.

"Y-Yes Kakashi-Sensei?"

"Here." He tossed her the scroll. "Given your near perfect chakra control, you're well suited to being a medic. That's the basics of Iryō Ninjutsu, study hard and practice with Sasuke's fingers. It's a stable fracture, the bones just need to be realigned and healed. Well within the limits of a beginner."

 **Well, that was unexpected. I'm beginning to rethink my position on him.** Kurama chuckled. **I approve of this side of him.**

"I don't have much experience using Iryō Jutsu but I'll help when I can. I requested someone with medical experience in our back-up so they can give you a little instruction too." Kakashi put a hand on Sakura's shoulder. "I have a feeling you were made for this role." With that said, Sakura excused herself to start reading her scroll and Kakashi sent Naruto to get some sleep while he bandaged Sasuke's fingers.

The rest of that day and the following one passed quickly, Kakashi spent most of his time resting, reading and occasionally helping Sakura train her new skill set, Sasuke trained diligently and had a healing session with Sakura every couple of hours, Naruto had his clones work on his chakra control and other skills while he kept watch and tried to come up with a way he could keep Haku and Zabuza alive.

The morning of the third day Naruto saw something coming towards the house quickly, leaving a clone behind to keep watch Naruto dropped from the roof and slipped in through the open window of Kakashi's room.

"Someone's coming." He said.

"Our back-up?" Kakashi asked.

"Too far to tell."

"Go get Sakura and Sasuke ready, just in case." Naruto nodded and ran out of the room, shouting for his teammates while Kakashi pulled himself to his feet. Downstairs the three Genin had constructed a barricade in front of the door and were peeking out of the windows. "Report."

"No sign yet Kakashi-Sensei, just a small dust cloud on the horizon." Sakura replied, turning from the window. "Who do you think it is?"

"Could be our back-up or it could be the enemy, either way it's better to be on guard."

"Target sighted." Sasuke said, drawing a kunai from his pouch. Kakashi moved to the window and looked out.

"Oh no." He groaned.

"Oh yes." A sultry voice said from behind Sakura, causing the girl to stiffen and pale as a kunai was placed on her throat. "Now Kakashi, is that anyway to treat a friend? Someone you've been _very_ close to?"

"How did you get in here?" Sasuke demanded, spinning around and immediately finding himself paralyzed, thanks to a senbon sticking into one of his nerve clusters.

"That's the mental-break waiting to happen dealt with along with the useless fangirl, so where's the prankster?"

"Right here." Naruto said, he was standing on the ceiling with a kunai pointed at the crown of the woman's head.

"Clever brat." The woman looked up and gave Naruto a sadistic grin before spitting a second senbon out of her mouth, hitting Naruto right between the eyes delivering a toxin that disrupted his chakra. "But not clever enough." The woman used a shunshin to avoid Naruto's fall, leaving him to land on top of Sakura, she then used shunshin again to return to her previous position and used the two Genin as a seat. "Is this really the best your brats can do Kakashi?"

Kakashi pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, of all the people to send why her?

"How far behind did you leave the rest of our back-up?" He asked.

"You mean you need someone other than me?" She pouted, "Kakashi, I'm hurt. You've never complained about needing more than just me before. We even re-enacted some of your favourite parts of Icha Icha Fantasy, there was pages 16, 37 and 50. We tried page 72 but I wasn't flexible enough, which is saying something and you wanted to do that thing on page 109 but that's too kinky, even for me."

"109? The thing with the egg whisk and wet celery?" Naruto asked, drawing a slightly surprised look from Anko.

"That's the one blondie."

"Damn Kakashi-Sensei, I knew you were a perv but I didn't think you were that bad."

"Naruto, she's lying and you know what I mean Anko, who else is with you?"

"No-one, just me." Anko replied, "The Old Man said he'd try and sort out more back up but there's no guarantee." Kakashi's blood ran cold.

"What?"

"The Old Man can't spare anyone else right now, hell he looked ready to suit up and come here himself when he got your report. What you described was too high level for a Genin team to be sent and with the you-know-what happening soon, the village needs every shinobi it can get to run missions and prepare. You were lucky to get me and not a random Chunin, now give me the details before my chair tries to get up." Sighing again Kakashi filled Anko in on the mission and what had happened so far. "Alright, I've got the picture of what's happening. What can the brats do? I need to know what I'm working with here while you recover."

"I'll let them tell you, your toxins are beginning to wear off." Kakashi turned and made his way back to his bedroll to keep recovering.

"Lazy bastard." Anko muttered as she stood up and picked Naruto and Sakura up by their collars, she dropped them on the couch and pushed Sasuke over to join them. "So, what can you do?"

"Who are you?" Sasuke demanded, receiving another paralysing senbon to the neck.

"Learn some manners." Anko pointed a finger at Sakura. "Name and capabilities."

"I-I'm Sakura Haruno, I have nearly perfect chakra control and I can use the three academy Jutsu, I've completed the tree-climbing exercise and Kakashi-Sensei just started my education in Iryō Ninjutsu."

"What about the mental-break in waiting?" A low grunt came from Sasuke as he tried to speak through the paralysis Anko's senbon had stricken him with.

"H-He's Sasuke Uchiha, like me he's learnt the academy Jutsu and tree-climbing, he can use some Katon Jutsu too."

"Blondie your turn, big fan of your work by the way."

"Thanks, always nice to meet a fan. Naruto smirked. "I don't have many. Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage, massive chakra reserves, even more stamina, I can use two of the academy jutsu replacing Bushin no Jutsu with Kage Bushin no Jutsu. I can tree-climb using chakra and I'm in the process of learning the Rasengan. Outside of Jutsu I can set traps and I'm very good at stealth."

"Your dress sense says you're bad at stealth."

"I painted Hokage Monument during the day, on a very sunny day, in a bright orange jumpsuit and didn't get noticed until I'd finished, I've snuck into ANBU headquarters and set up all sort of pranks then got out without being seen. I've been in all of the most highly secured buildings in the village and not been caught in there." Naruto paused for effect. "Now tell me I'm bad at stealth."

"Prove it, what's in the bottom draw of Ibiki's desk?"

"Bottom left is a picture of someone I'm going to guess is his younger brother, bottom right has a bottle of high quality sake, a brand that I'm pretty sure is illegal outside of Mizu no Kuni. And just to prove a point, in the bottom draws of the Old Man's desk are his collection of Icha Icha and his 'special blend' tobacco, I also know the locations of his sake stashes."

"…." Anko blinked. "Okay brat, I believe you. One question though, why did you never prank anyone in T&I?"

"I'm an idiot but even I know not to mess with the people who play head games with poison and sharp objects."

"Fair point, they use some blunt objects too sometimes. Guess it's my turn now. I'm the sexy and irresistible Anko Mitarashi, a Tokubetsu Jonin. I specialise in tracking although I've done a bit of everything, T&I, assassination, seduction, you know, the usual fare." Anko grinned. "Now for some bad news, until Kakashi's back on his feet I'm taking over your training. So, let's just go back to what you can do. Mental-Break's a firebug, what about you two?" Anko pointed at Naruto and Sakura. "What are your chakra natures?"

"We don't know." Sakura replied.

"…What?"

"W-We don't know, no one's told us and we haven't been shown how to do any elemental jutsu."

"You're seriously telling me that…" Anko snarled and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay, this is going to be harder than I thought. I don't have any chakra paper on me to test you so we'll have to do it the old-fashioned way. Any questions before we start?" She asked as she pulled the senbon from Sasuke's neck.

"Why are you dressed like a whore?" Sasuke growled. Naruto slapped his hand to his forehead while Sakura covered her mouth. Anko's only reply was to break all the fingers on Sasuke's left hand before furiously turning away.

"KAKASHI, YOU'VE GOT SOME EXPLAINING TO DO!" Anko roared as she stomped towards the stairs, the sound of a window being opened was heard and the three Genin saw Kakashi fall past the window of the kitchen before he staggered to his feet and started running. "STOP BEING A PUSSY AND TAKE YOUR BEATING! THE MORE YOU MAKE ME RUN THE WORSE IT'S GOING TO BE!"

While Kakashi ran for safety Sakura started to bandage Sasuke's hand and began to use her new skills in Iryō Ninjutsu to heal the damage.

2 Hours Later

"Right first thing to do is fix the three of you." Anko said, staring at the three Genin as they stood outside Tazuna's house.

"W-What do you mean 'fix us', Anko-Sensei?" Sakura asked nervously.

"Ah, ah, ah, don't call me Anko-Sensei, call me Anko-Sama. Now, each of you need a tune up, when I left the academy I knew my chakra natures, four elemental jutsu and built up a tolerance to the most common poisons and toxins used. That's not counting the basic three jutsu and a bunch more." Anko folded her arms over her chest. "Frankly, if it's the same for all of your class, I'd send the lot of you back to the academy. Mental-Break needs a shrink and a serious attitude adjustment, Fangirl you need a reality check, Blondie is honestly the most psychologically sound out of the three of you and given what he's had to put up with in his life so far that's saying a lot."

"You don't know what I need." Sasuke growled. Anko picked Sasuke up by his collar and looked him dead in the eye.

"Yes, I do. You think you need to kill Itachi, that you need to restore your clan's honour by ending your brother. You feel that fire blazing away in your chest, it's the first thing you feel when you wake up in the morning, last thing you feel at night and all you dream about when you're not having the recurring nightmares of everything that's happened to you. That fire is the only thing that's keeping you going, the one thing that stops you from breaking into a thousand pieces and crying yourself to an early grave. I know that feeling, I live with that feeling, every single day, and it's a lot stronger than yours is. Do you know what I do with it? I take all of that rage, all the anger and hate, every last bit of it and hold it tight in my hand and feel the burn, then I say no more, no-one else will feel this pain, no-one will have to live like this. Not while I can help it. Now you need to do the same turn all of those feelings you've got stacking up and use that energy for something else."

"Like what?" Sasuke spat, angry that Anko was reading like a book.

"You're a shinobi of Konohagakure, put that energy into protecting the Will of Fire."

"Why? Itachi believed in that and look what happened. He killed everyone and left me alone!" Sasuke raged.

"Maybe the Will of Fire is why he kept you alive. Protecting the next generation and making the world a better place for them. He left you because he saw something in you that he felt the world needed." Anko lowered Sasuke back to his feet and stepped back. "Think about that." Anko put a hand on Sakura's shoulder. "Come on Fangirl we need to have a little girl talk." Sakura sent a pleading look at Naruto and Sasuke, Naruto gave her a reassuring smile while Sasuke's face was blank as he processed what Anko had said. Anko lead Sakura into some nearby trees and disappeared from sight.

Naruto spent a minute trying to talk to Sasuke but gave up seeing that he wasn't going to get a response so he picked up some fallen leaves and started training his chakra control by sticking the leaves to his forehead and nose. Ten minutes later Sakura came back wide-eyed and pale faced with Anko behind her wearing a sadistic grin.

"Okay Blondie, your turn. Follow me." 'Follow me' wasn't really necessary for Anko to say as she grabbed Naruto's jacket and dragged him after her. Getting into the trees Anko leapt onto a sturdy branch, taking Naruto with her and sat leaning against the trunk, folding her arms underneath her breasts pushing them up.

"So, what are you going to do with me?" Naruto asked, sitting down facing her and trying to keep his focus on her face. The smirk that twitched at the corner of Anko's lips told him that she was intentionally messing with him.

"Just talk, I meant it when I said you were the most psychologically sound out of your team. Don't get me wrong, you're not mentally stable, not with your fashion sense but you're closer to it than the other two. You've got your priorities in order, protect those you care about, protect your teammates and you've got a dream, a goal you want to achieve that doesn't involve murdering family, to become Hokage. In all honesty I'd like to see you in that chair, you'd make things interesting and I enjoy watching chaos happen." Anko paused to gauge Naruto's reaction to what she'd said. Naruto looked surprised to hear what she was saying, especially on hearing he had someone that wanted to see him be Hokage, even if it was just to see what could happen.

"Before I came out I read your file." Anko continued. "I know about the Kyūbi, I know that you finally know about it now and I couldn't care less about it, everyone has their inner demons to deal with, yours just happened to be a real one. According to the file you've never been really angry at anyone, annoyed and frustrated yes, but not blood boiling, punch throwing angry. Which is why I'm saying you're not mentally stable, to put up with all the insults, the mental and physical attacks, not to mention the emotional impact all of it would've had on you. That leaves scars, wounds in your psyche that never go away, you just learn to live with them but you need to have some form of outlet for it. Everyone has a way of coping with the life of a shinobi, Mental-Break uses it as fuel to keep him going for all the wrong reasons, Kakashi reads porn and shows up late, Guy trains hard and wears that Kami-awful jumpsuit, Kurenai is an ice queen, Smokestack…well, clues in the name. My point is you keep it all bottled up, and with the Kyūbi inside you that can't be good. Your pranks can probably bleed a little of that anger off but not enough to make a real difference in it. I can understand why you've held it all in, you want to be accepted and you love the village but with everything you've been through and the burden you're carrying, it's not healthy for you to keep it contained. I noticed that you've hit nearly every restaurant and food joint in the village has been a target at least once except for Ichiraku Ramen. They're good people, shame about Teuchi's wife though. They helped me out a lot when I needed it." Anko unconsciously rubbed the base of her neck. "Anyway, all I can tell you is things get easier especially when you get some people you know you can rely on and when you find something you can do to vent all of that excess anger."

Naruto stayed silent and nodded as Anko finished.

"You're a strange one Blondie. I came into this mission expecting you to be a loudmouth and complaining about everything but from the little I've seen and what Kakashi's told me you've matured quickly but you try to hide it. Now that could be you've realised that you need to grow up quickly if you're going to be a shinobi, could be that something's happened to change you or it could be that you're not the real Naruto Uzumaki and you're an imposter. So…" A large snake quickly appeared from underneath the branch they were sat on and wrapped around Naruto. Anko stood up, revealing that the snake had slithered out of her sleeve and used her trench coat to hide the fact. She sashayed her way towards him, her hips swaying back and forth to distract him even more. Naruto silently cursed whatever had happened to him for making him go through puberty again. "Which is it? Imposter or has the little troublemaker grown up." Anko bent over, looking him in the eye and giving him a view of her cleavage.

"You know, if you keep eating so much dango you'll get fat." Naruto replied with a smirk, using all of his willpower to keep his focus on Anko's eyes.

"And how do you know I like dango?"

"I can smell it on your breath." Naruto sighed and wriggled a little. "I'm not an imposter, I just realised that I needed to start taking things seriously." Anko looked at him suspiciously.

"I'm not sure I believe you."

"I can prove I'm the real Naruto but you're probably not going to like it."

"…Go on." Anko replied after a moment's hesitation.

Naruto closed his eyes and call on Kurama's chakra, the snake binding him hissed and retreated back into Anko's sleeve as a small aura of red chakra flared into life around Naruto's body.

"Alright Blondie, I believe you. Put the beast back in its cage." Naruto nodded and let Kurama's chakra recede. "Now go join the other two, I'll be with you in a few." Naruto dropped to the ground. "And at least look a little scared, I don't want anyone thinking I've gone soft. Or that I have a favourite."

"I am the favourite though right?" Naruto called up to her. A kunai sunk into the ground between his feet. "I'll take that as a maybe." Naruto turned and ran back to Sakura and Sasuke before any more weapons were thrown at him.

"You're right, he's hiding something. Not sure what though." Anko said with a smile as she watched the blonde run away, Kakashi appeared with a Shunshin and stood in front of Anko. "He's not a risk though, not right now at least. You can see in his eyes how much he loves the village, especially you and the other two which is weird. You're a couple of months old as a team, they're all green, but to him it's like he's known all of you for years. Could be something to do with how he's been alone for a lot of his life but I don't know, there's something I just can't put my finger on."

"Hmm, I noticed it too. I told Lord Hokage the same in the report, he'll be having Yūgao look into somethings. If there's any explanations to be found, she'll find them."

"True, she won't let it go until she finds an answer. She really needs to get laid more but with Hayate's condition…"

"Anko, I really didn't need that image in my head."

"Oh, like you haven't got a mental naked picture of every kunoichi you've ever met in your head." Anko smirked as Kakashi scratched his cheek and looked away.

"Don't be too hard on them okay, like you said, they're still green."

"No promises, now get out of here and rest up. When Zabuza comes back we'll need every hand we've got." There was a moment of quiet before Anko spoke again. "I can see what's happening you know, rebuilding your old team. The cold prodigy, the infatuated medic and the lovable goofball."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"You're really trying to bluff me?"

"Cut the game Anko and just say what you want to say."

"You can't change the past, you can't fix the mistakes that were made. What happened, happened, man up and get over it." Anko stretched her arms, groaning at her joints popped. "Oh, one other thing Naruto's Minato and Kushina's kid, isn't he?" She noticed the slight widening of Kakashi's visible eye. "Don't even think of bullshitting me, I know I'm right. Kid's the spitting image of Minato with the personality of Kushina, there's no way he could be anyone else's son." Anko let out a dry laugh. "If he takes after Minato in the looks department, he'll be beating girls off with a stick when he's older. Hell, I might look him up in a few years if he does." Anko rolled off the branch. "Go watch the bridge builder while I put your brats through the ringer. When I'm through they'll be shinobi to be proud of." She strolled back to the Genin of Team 7, leaving Kakashi behind to think of what she'd said.

"So, what now?" Naruto asked as he lined up with his teammates when Anko came back. Sasuke seemed to be back to normal although there was a look in his eyes that said part of his mind was elsewhere, Sakura looked like she'd recovered from whatever Anko had done and said but was still a bit pale.

"Now I put all three of you through the grinder and turn you into real shinobi." Anko gave them a sadistic grin. "Welcome to hell."

The next few days were just that, hell, Anko pushed all three Genin to their limits, Sakura would hit hers first but fought against her body's complaints to keep going until Anko told her to rest. Sasuke's fingers healed quickly thanks to Sakura's new skills and some help from Anko, he'd try to keep up with Naruto's seemingly endless stamina but would eventually collapse. Anko's training even had Naruto reaching the end of his stamina but his stubbornness kept him going even further, he'd yet to fall and Anko sometimes had to forcibly make him rest. They'd gone through speed and strength training along with dexterity and agility. Naruto was a frontline fighter so his training was focused mostly on strength, speed and accuracy, to able to hit harder in the right places more frequently for greater effect on his opponent. Sasuke was a mid to close range fighter, his training was much like Naruto's but not focused as much on strength and more on balancing out his abilities. Sakura was given the role of support and medic, Anko had her work on speed and agility as being a medic meant she was the most important member of the team, she could keep her teammates going for as long as possible which would make her a target.

While Team 7 were being worked into the ground Anko set to work on things that Kakashi should've dealt with much earlier. Sasuke's attitude had been the first thing Anko tore into, doing her best to turn his avenger drive into one of a protector, it was a work in progress but she seemed to be getting somewhere. Sakura's diet and fangirl attitude were next to come under Anko's sights, the Tokubetsu Jonin laid out the facts that to an effective and sexy kunoichi she didn't need to diet just eat normally and the lifestyle of a shinobi would give her the figure she wanted. Her fangirl attitude was slightly harder to remedy then her diet, as it had been around for longer but by forcing Sakura to admit Sasuke's faults and address the way things stood between them. While parts of her fangirl tendencies still hung around Anko had managed to clear most of the major issues. Anko kept a close but secretive eye on Naruto to see if he showed any signs of what he could be hiding.

Kakashi wasn't spared Anko's tune up either, once he'd recovered enough she tore into him for being out of shape and not dealing with the attitudes of his team earlier. Anko forced him to go through his former ANBU training courses, since he'd been slacking after leaving his post as a Captain and returning to normal duties. While he watched over Tazuna and the bridge he worked to get his fitness back to their former levels.

Giving the Genin a break from training their bodies Anko decided to have them work on their chakra control.

"Alright, here's the deal. You're going to walk on water, it's simple enough to do. Send a constant stream of chakra to your feet and adjust as needed." Anko explained as they stood on the dock outside Tazuna's house. Three snakes shot out of her sleeves and threw the Genin over the water. "Now, get to it!"

Naruto spawned a trio of clones to catch and right himself and his teammates, he hit the water first and immediately sank below the surface, Sasuke was a close second and Sakura managed to stay on the surface for a couple of seconds before the water became too unstable thanks to the waves from Naruto and Sasuke.

"Don't swim to the shore, pull yourselves up onto the surface." Anko shouted as she watched them, leaning against the side of the house with her arms crossed. Sakura swam a distance away from her teammates and after a couple of attempts manages to stand on the surface of the water again, bobbing slightly as she learnt to adjust her chakra to the water's movement. Naruto and Sasuke stayed where they were and struggled with the amount of chakra they needed. "I can understand blondie having trouble with this cause of how much chakra he has but it looks like the Uchiha aren't as great as they made themselves out to be." The Tokubetsu Jonin just grinned as Sasuke growled at her. "You want to do something, prove me wrong. Stand on the water." Her taunt spurred Sasuke on and about an hour later he was standing on the water, a little wobbly but it was a start. Naruto was in a similar position to Sasuke, he was using too much chakra and sending waves out from his hand each time he tried to lift himself to the surface.

"I wonder…" Naruto muttered before letting himself sink below the surface, when he was about 15 feet down he sent a blast of chakra from his soles and rocketed through the water and into the air. "WWWOOOOOOOHHOOOOOOOO!" He yelled as he sailed into the air. As he fell towards the water surface he channeled chakra to his feet and prayed this would work. He hit the surface and the water moved with his impact sending a wave in every direction. Sakura and Sasuke staggered as the waves disturbed the water they stood on but stayed on their feet. Naruto slowly opened his eyes and saw that he was standing on the surface. "YES!" He shouted triumphantly.

"Congratulations, you can stand on water." Anko said from behind him, water dripped off of her. It was then that Naruto realised he'd been closest to the dock where Anko stood, his take off had sent a wave of water everywhere and soaked her. "Now you can learn to fight on it." Anko finished, lashing out with a round kick that sent his skipping across the water like a stone.

That was the last thing Naruto could remember as Anko's kick sent him head first into one of the wooden posts of the dock, he woke up a couple of hours later laying on his bed roll while Sakura sat next to him looking tired.

"You okay Sakura?" He asked, slowly sitting up, Sakura jerked in surprise.

"I should be asking you that, how's your head?" She replied.

"Fine, I've got a thick skull. What happened?"

"After we pulled you out of the water and brought you back here. Anko-Sama sparred with us on the water before testing us for our element affinity. She had us push chakra into a flame, a bowl of water, a mound of dirt and into a balloon. Depending on what reacted to our chakra the most showed us what our affinity was, if none of them reacted much it would mean we had a lightning affinity."

"Cool, what did you get?"

"Earth and water."

"Nice, it fits you."

"What do you mean?"

"Earth and water, strong and flexible. You adapt to everything and don't let it break you." A pale blush crossed Sakura's cheeks.

"Anko-Sama wanted to know when you woke up, I'll go tell her." Sakura stood up and quickly left the room. Anko appeared behind him a minute later, grabbing his collar and dragging him back to the dock.

"You've had your sleep, time to see what you can do." Anko stepped off the dock and onto the water, walking to the middle and turning to face him. "I'm waiting." Naruto charged off the dock and threw a volley of shuriken at her.

"Kage Shuriken no Jutsu!" He shouted after forming the handsigns. The volley of shuriken turned into a fast approaching wall of death. Anko swore violently as snakes shot out of her sleeves and formed a cocoon around her.

"I didn't say you could use jutsu!" She shouted.

"You never said I couldn't." Naruto replied, Anko smirked.

"Clever brat, reading between the lines, if that's the way you want it, then fine." Anko sensed Naruto's attack had ended and let the snakes retreat to her sleeves, they were cut but not too badly. She started to spit senbon at him while forming handsigns but paused when she felt something grab her ankles. Flicking her eyes down she saw Naruto's head peeking out of the water.

"My eyes are clear, so I can't be wrong. Anko-Sama's wearing a tho-." He didn't get to finish that word as Anko cut the chakra at her feet and sank into the water before crushing his head between her thighs revealing that he'd been a clone as he dispelled into a puff of smoke. The Naruto in front of her went red as the memory hit him and a thin trickle of blood escaped his nose.

"Worth it." He muttered to himself before spawning a horde of clones that all charged at Anko. As soon as they were in range Anko struck out with Katon Jutsu and snakes, although she was taking out large numbers of clones each time they were easily replaced. The clones started to use Naruto's trick from earlier to counter the Katon Jutsu with blasts of water, once again soaking Anko in the process. Slowly the onslaught of clones managed to maneuvered Anko towards the dock and grinned.

"What's got you so happy? Is it because I'm wet?" A purr in Anko's voice made Naruto and his clones turn red again.

"That's not it." He replied, "It's cause I've won."

"And how have you done that?" A flurry of shuriken flew past Anko's eyes as they wrapped wire around her, tying her to a pillar of the dock. Looking down she saw the wires had explosive tags attached to them.

"Kakashi-Sensei might be a lazy perv but he taught us the most important thing there is."

"Which is?"

"We're a team." Naruto dispelled his clones, Sakura and Sasuke stepped out of the smoke.

"If you fight one of us." Sasuke said.

"You fight all of us." Sakura finished.

Anko looked at each of them individually before nodding and using a shunshin to escape the wire.

"I wondered if any of you would think of working together." She said appearing behind Naruto. "Not bad kid." She ruffled his hair. "Not bad at all. Now to find out your affinity." Leading the team back to the house Anko put a pile of dirt, a candle and a bowl of water on a table in front of Naruto. "Channel some chakra into these and whichever reacts most is your affinity. There was a balloon but Mental-Break burst it trying too hard." Nodding in understanding Naruto put his hand by each and got weak reactions from each. "Try just channeling chakra into the air, imagine it spinning." Naruto did as he was told and the air quickly started to follow the movement of his chakra, letting a breeze flow through the room. Anko let out a low whistle. "That's a strong wind affinity you've got there. I'd guess you only have the one but with the amount of chakra you've got you can probably use any affinity jutsu without much trouble. Have Kakashi talk to the smokestack, if he can get him out from between Kurenai's legs that is."

With that said Anko ran them through some combat drills and tactics before taking them back into Tazuna's house to rest, seeing the state the team were in Tsunami started preparing a meal for them. Sakura immediately fell onto the couch face first while Sasuke slumped against a wall before sliding to the floor. Naruto made his way to the table and dropped into a seat, resting his head on the tabletop.

"Why are you doing this?"

Naruto tilted his head towards the speaker and saw Inari standing there glaring at them.

"It's what we're getting paid for kid." Anko replied, leaning back in a chair and putting her feet on the table.

"You're just going to die."

"We're Shinobi, it's an occupational hazard. Just who do you thinks going to kill us anyway?"

"Gato, you can't beat him so just leave."

"I'm not leaving." Naruto said as he stood up and walked towards Inari.

"Then you'll die."

"No, I won't. There's a lot I need to do before that happens."

"Don't you get it!" Inari shouted, "Gato will kill all of you!"

"The sky's green, it rains ramen and dango, Sasuke has sex dreams about Kakashi-Sensei and Anko's actually a shrine maiden." Anko let out a sharp cackle of laughter while an angry grumble came from Sasuke. "Just cause you keep saying that but that doesn't make it true."

"Anyone who stood up to him died, you don't know who you're dealing with. You haven't lost the things we have!"

"You're right, I haven't." Naruto said simply, stopping Inari's rant in its tracks. All eyes were on Naruto now but he kept his eyes on Inari. "I haven't lost those things because I never had them in the first place. No parents, no siblings, the closest thing I've got to a family is an old man, a ramen chef and his daughter but just cause I haven't lost them doesn't mean I know what it's like to lose people you care for." Naruto could feel his eyes welling up at the memories of losing the Third Hokage and Jiraiya. "There's one thing you have to remember, the people you've lost wouldn't want you to be scared and hide. They'd want you to be happy and fight for the things you care about, not scream and shout at people who are risking their lives to help you." Naruto bopped Inari on the head. "Now you can either shut up and stay out of our way or you can grow up and stand up for what you want and believe in." Naruto turned and walked to the door. "I'm going to train." He said as he closed the door behind him.

"Should he really go out on his own like that?" Tsunami asked.

"Probably not." Anko replied, using a senbon as a toothpick. "Pinkie go check on him, if you can't get him to come back at least get him to work that out of his system." Even though Anko said it in a disinterested way she was actually replaying the way Naruto had acted through her mind.

"But Anko-Sensei…."

"Ahem."

"Anko-Sama."

"Better, now what were you going to say?"

"Naruto probably wants to be on his own right now, should I really go after him?"

"No, but there is an A-Rank Missing-nin out there, probably with some henchmen. I'm sure Blondie will be fine if they find him." Sakura didn't reply except for pulling herself to her feet from where she'd collapsed and staggering towards the door. "Hang on, turn around and open your mouth." Feeling too tired to question the order Sakura did as she was told, she felt a couple of pills land on her tongue. "Swallow them, that'll pick up your energy levels for a few hours and easy your aches." Sakura once again followed orders and swallowed the pills, she felt herself getting better and left to find Naruto.

"What about me?" Sasuke asked from his place on the floor as the door closed.

"Suck it up."

As Sakura left the house she managed to catch a glimpse of Naruto's jacket before it disappeared into some trees, following him quickly she searched around for a few minutes she eventually found him in a small clearing fighting his clones. She quickly climbed the nearest tree and sat on a branch to see what Naruto was doing.

"Again!" He shouted at them. "We need to be stronger, faster, better! We're not losing anyone ever again, this time'll be different, this time everyone lives. Everyone's relying on us, so come at me again with everything you've got!" His clones nodded and roared as they charged him with kunai drawn. Naruto spun his tonfa around and settled into a stance, as soon as the first clone was in reach he lashed out dispelling it with a devastating blow to the side of the head.

"This time?" Sakura whispered to herself, "What's he talking about?" While she watched Naruto fighting his clones a glint of metal caught her eye. She tracked the glint back to either end of the tonfa as Naruto spun them into another attack. Waiting for them to stop spinning she caught sight of kunai tied to each end of the tonfa with wire. She watched as Naruto fought his way through his clones with a ferocity and efficiency she'd never seen him possess before. Once Naruto had dispelled the last one Sakura dropped from her hiding place but immediately froze as Naruto spun on her and barely stopped his tonfa from hitting her head when he realised she wasn't one of his clones.

Being so close Sakura could see how wild Naruto's eyes had become, they were nothing like their usual friendly appearance. These eyes were those of a fighter but they vanished as Naruto blinked and took a breath.

"Sorry about that Sakura, I didn't mean to scare you." He said lowering his weapons and untying the kunai.

"It's fine, I should've let you know I was here." Sakura replied, letting out a breath she didn't realise she'd been holding.

"Why are you here?" Naruto asked as he put the kunai and wire back in his pouch.

"Anko asked be to check on you."

"I'm fine, go back to the house and get some rest."

"Can't do that, Anko told me to either bring you back with me or help you work out whatever's in your system." Sakura reached into her pouch and pulled out a kunai. "Seeing as you're now going to be going back to the house, I guess that means we're training together." She lowered herself into a stance. "Don't hold back on me and I'll do the same." Naruto took a second to look at Sakura as if she'd grown a second head before chuckling.

"Thanks Sakura."

"What are friends for?"

"Alright then let's see how much better we can get." Naruto readied himself and waited for Sakura to attack.

The Next Morning

Naruto was laying flat on the grass, dozing lightly as Sakura sat up against a tree not far from him.

 **We've got company.** Kurama said as Naruto felt a hand reaching for his shoulder.

"You shouldn't be sleeping out here, you'll get a cold." The person attached to the hand said. Naruto opened his eyes slowly to be greeted by a familiar face.

"Wh…who are you?" He asked, faking a sleepy appearance. The person kneeling next to him smiled kindly.

"My name's Haku."

 **Let me know what you think.**

 **Until Next Time (Which will hopefully be sooner)**

 **Basic Trainer**


	6. Chapter 6

**It's been a long time and I'm sorry for the wait, blame work, life and illness.**

 **Here's the chapter.**

Chapter 6

Trying For Change

Naruto's eyes flicked towards Sakura, she was still leaning against the tree asleep with his jacket draped over her. She'd pushed herself hard the previous night and Naruto actually had to make her stop before she hurt herself. Once he was sure Sakura was alright and would be safe he turned his attention back to Haku, sitting upright and smiling.

"I'm Naruto, what brings you here?"

"I was looking some herbs, but I found the two of you instead. What about you? Why are the two of you sleeping out here?" Haku asked.

"We were training." Naruto replied as he stretched his muscles. "I had some…things to work out and Sakura wouldn't leave me here alone. We kind of just wore ourselves out and collapsed." He flipped to his feet. "Let me help you pick those herbs."

As Haku nodded he took a few seconds to study the person in front of him. It may have been due to the fading of memories but Haku's face looked rounder then he remembered and his kimono had a different design, where originally he remembered it being pink with purple tomoe on it this one was a pale blue with cherry blossom branches on it.

"Thank you but I'm sure a shinobi of Konoha has better things to do then pick herbs."

"Huh? Oh right, the hitai-ate. It's fine, I'm happy to help." Naruto jerked a thumb towards Sakura. "Besides, she pushed herself too far last night and probably won't wake up for a while."

"Why not take her somewhere safe?"

"Cause if she wakes up and I'm carrying her she'll punch me in the head."

"…"

"I know, it's just the way things are right now."

"You have a strange relationship with your friends, don't you?"

"You have no idea." Naruto laughed, turning his head to look at Sakura his features softened. "But all my friends are precious to me, that's why I was training last night. I need to be stronger so I can protect them all." Haku's face became unreadable as Naruto spoke.

"I feel the same about my master." Haku eventually said after a minute of silence while they picked herbs. "He took me in when I had nowhere else to go. I'll do whatever I have to to help him."

"Is that what brought a guy like you out this early in the morning? Is he ill?"

"He was injured while he was working and needs some time to heal." Haku looked up from the plant life in front of him. "How did you know I was a boy? Most people think I'm a girl."

"I've been caught out in the past and learnt from it."

"That sounds like an interesting story." Haku chuckled.

"It is but not one I want to tell, it doesn't end well." Naruto said sadly, turning his attention to Haku. He caught sight of bandages underneath Haku's kimono as it hung slightly loose at the neck. _Did Haku get injured at some point? Hang on, could they be?_ Naruto refocused his attention on Haku's face, taking in the soft features of his face, the long hair, the clothes. He reconsidered everything that he'd seen and heard from Haku so far, discounting what he thought he already knew. _Son of a…Haku is a girl!_

 **You only just figuring that out?** Kurama said.

 _I was wrong last time and Haku just said he…she, whatever, was a guy._

 **Think it through, travelling with a girl can draw unwanted attention, a boy doesn't.**

 _Yeah, I suppose that makes sense but why lie about it all the time._

 **It's easier to stick to the lie if you live it, you should know that.**

 _What do you mean?_

 **You know what I mean, you lied to yourself everyday saying that when you became Hokage everyone would respect you. Back then you knew it would never be like that but you continued to lie to yourself just so you could make it through the day.**

 _…_ _Fine, you've got me there._

With that said Kurama cut their connection while Naruto continued to pick herbs with Haku in silence for a while until they heard Sakura groan. Looking up they saw her stretching her arms towards the sky.

"Oww, everything hurts." She moaned as she opened her eyes, blinking as she saw Haku. "Oh, hello."

"Hello." Haku said standing up and approaching her, placing some items in her hand. "Chew these, they'll help with the pain." Sakura looked at what she held in her hand and searched her mind for the botanical knowledge she'd gained from her friendship with Ino.

"Peppermint, acanthopanax root bark and ginger. All of them are effective in helping with joint and muscle pain." Sakura looked up and smiled at Haku. "Thank you." She put a couple of peppermint leaves into her mouth and chewed on them as she took her compact mirror from her pouch and used the flat surface as a base to grind up part of the acanthopanax and ginger.

While Sakura let the herbs soothe her aching body Naruto told her what he'd been doing while waiting for her to wake up.

"How are you not aching?" Sakura asked. "You trained harder then I did, you shouldn't be able to move." Naruto shrugged.

"Good genes I suppose. Nothing keeps me down for long, couple of days for a broken arm when I was 6 is the longest I've been out of action, I think." Sakura was in the middle of pouring the ground up acanthopanax and ginger into her water canteen when she paused to stare at Naruto.

"Two days for a broken arm?"

"Yes, I've always healed fast." Naruto looked at the sky. "We should probably get back to the house now, we've been gone all night." He created a Shadow Clone which walked over and knelt down with it's back facing Sakura. "If you're sore then it'll be quicker getting back if my clone carries you. I'm going to help Haku pick a few more herbs to say thanks for giving you some. I'll catch up in a few minutes." Sakura reluctantly nodded and drank from her water canteen before putting everything back in her pouch and climbed onto the clone's back. Once Sakura was out of the clearing Naruto sat down facing Haku, his face growing serious. "I know who you are."

"Yes, you do. I introduced myself to you earlier." Haku replied.

"No, I mean I know exactly who you are. Haku Yuki of the Hyoton, tool of Zabuza Momochi the Demon of the Mist." Haku shot to her feet with senbon appearing between the fingers of her closed fists, watching Naruto closely while he continued to speak calmly. "I know you're actually a girl and I can guess why you say you're a boy but honestly you're not fooling anyone, you're too pretty. I don't want to fight you, I just want to talk to Zabuza, I have a business proposition for him."

"And why should I believe you?"

"You mean apart from the fact I'm a kid that couldn't last five minutes against Zabuza even though he's injured right now? As crazy as this sounds, I know the future." Haku raised an eyebrow sceptically. "I know but it's true, or at least partly. This conversation didn't happen in the future I know…knew, whatever. I just want to talk to Zabuza, you can tied me up, seal my chakra and keep a blade to my neck if it'll make you feel better but I'm trying to save both of your lives. Please, just let me talk to him." Naruto waited for Haku's answer when she vanished from his sight and just before blacking out he felt to pinpricks in the side of his neck.

When he came too, just like he'd suggested, he was bound in ninja wire, he couldn't call on his chakra and Haku was stood behind him with a senbon pressing against his carotid. In front of him he saw Zabuza laying in a bed, bandages covered his torso and a makeshift brace was around his neck. His gigantic sword was resting against the wall within easy reach if he needed it.

 _Kurama?_

 **I'm here, the seal they're using for your chakra isn't strong enough to hold me back. Give the word and I'll burn right through it.**

 _Let's see how this plays out before doing that. I want to try and get all of us out of here alive._

"Well, you've looked better." Naruto said as he took in his surroundings but stopped when he noticed something laying by Zabuza's side.

"I've felt better, now apparently there's a few things you want to talk about. First though I want to ask you about these." Zabuza lifted Naruto's tonfa. "Did a guy called Hyoujin make these?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"No particular reason, I just recognise the workmanship." Naruto hesitated but saw no harm in answering the question.

"…Yeah, he's got a shop in Konoha. I bought them just before coming on this mission." Zabuza let out a low chuckle as he threw the tonfa to Haku who then put them back in the holster on Naruto's back.

"Good to know he made it out of Mizu in one piece. That bastard was too tough to died that easily." Zabuza focussed his attention on Naruto, making the blonde feel like a mouse in front of a tiger. "So future boy, what's this business proposition you have for me?"

"Leave the bridge builder alone and I can get you more money then Gato's paying you."

"And how will you do that?" Zabuza asked with a raised brow.

"We work together to stop Gato destroying this country and you can take as much money as you like from the vault in Gato's office. On the condition you leave enough for the people here to get back on their feet."

"Kid, you've got balls of steel coming here and making a claim like that. I might even give you a little bit of respect but there's no way you can hold up your end of the deal."

"I know you don't believe me, hell if it hadn't happened to me then I wouldn't believe it but it's true. I know what happens in the future, or at least what might happen. I don't know, it's hard to explain."

"How about you tell me what you called this 'meeting' for so we can all go back to doing our jobs?"

"Alright, Gato's going to betray you."

"That it?" Zabuza sighed as he rolled his eyes. "Kid, I knew that coming into this job. Gato's known for his double dealing and black market connections, hell if half the stuff I've heard about him is true then every ninja he's hired in the past has been taken out by the same trick. Still, if I didn't expect something like that to happen on every job I took then I wouldn't have even made it out of my first mission."

"Humour me."

"Fine then, enlighten me. How are you trying to save us?"

"You're planning on attacking Tazuna on the bridge as soon as you're healed. You do that and my team's there to stop you, we fight. Me and one of my teammates defeat Haku while you're fighting Kakashi-Sensei." Naruto paused for a second. "Haku died saving your life, taking an attack from Kakashi-Sensei. Your arms were disabled during the fight and not long after that Gato arrived with a ship full of thugs, he kicked Haku's corpse. I chewed you out for not reacting, Kakashi-Sensei told me to shut up but I didn't listen and kept mouthing off at you asking how you couldn't care about Haku when she'd given everything she had to help you, then you looked at me. You were crying, that image stayed with me. One of the scariest Shinobi I've ever known brought to tears by the words of a twelve year old loudmouth who thought he was more than he was." Naruto paused again to let that sink in. "You were focused on getting to Gato, you told me to give you a kunai. I threw it, you caught it in your mouth and charged the thugs, tore through them in seconds but you were turned into a human pincushion with swords and spears in the process. You did get to Gato in the end though, killed him and sent him off the end of the bridge, after that the thugs were cleared out. Kakashi-Sensei carried you to Haku's side and you died alongside her." A sad smile formed on Naruto's face. "It was snowing. The two of you made me want to be the person I grew into, you gave me my nindo. I swore on your graves to find my own ninja way, one that won't lead my down the path of death and being used as a tool . A path that was straight, true and without regrets."

Zabuza just stared at Naruto in silence for a few seconds before bursting into laughter.

"Thanks for that kid, it's been a long time since I laughed like that." Zabuza said once he got control of himself, ignoring the look of anger on Naruto's face.

"Any chance that was the night you got drunk with Mei and spent the night together?" Naruto asked calmly, the leftover laughter on Zabuza's face vanished.

"How the fuck do you know about that?" Naruto internally breathed a sigh of relief, this was a gamble he really hoped would pay off.

"First Five Kage summit after I became Hokage, there was some drinking and war stories. I told the story about meeting you, Mei'd drank more then the rest of us and told us a few stories of your younger days. Apparently both of you had trouble walking properly the following day and Mei had to wear high collars or a scarf for a while to cover the bite marks on her neck." Naruto grinned as Zabuza just glared at him. "You should really file them down before getting intimate with someone, you could really hurt them. The reason I know that is the same as how I know you're sending any money you make to the Kiri rebels, that Mei Terumi is their leader and Chōjurō wields Hiramekarei as one of the Seven Swordsmen, her second in command is a man called Ao, he's got a Byakugan in his right eye and Mei threatens to kill him at random intervals." Naruto's grin widened. "How am I doing?"

"You're not a Genin, you've got to be Anbu. Probably assigned to keep watch over the Uchiha."

"I'm a Genin and how's my pulse?" Naruto asked, leaning his head back to look up at Haku.

"He's telling the truth or at least he believes he is." Haku said to Zabuza, even though shinobi were taught to lie convincingly there would always be a slight difference in their pulse that could be detected if you knew what to look for. Naruto returned his gaze to the man in front of him.

"Zabuza, this is a win-win scenario for you. You get more money for the rebels, you'll look good in Mei's eyes, you both get out alive and by working with me Nami will owe you for helping them get out from under Gato's slimy thumb. I'll throw in a bonus piece of information, not sure if it'll help or not but Yagura is being controlled by a powerful genjutsu. There's a group of S-Rank Shinobi who want to collect the Bijuu for some sort of super weapon, one of them is behind the genjutsu. If someone can get close enough to Yagura to break him out of it then…"

"It doesn't change what's happened kid, Yagura's going to die either way. It's just a matter of whether it's death in battle or execution after a trial. Thanks for the information though, it could come in handy."

"Either way you need to guard the Sanbi, if it's in a jinchurikki or sealed away in something else."

"If we manage to take out Yagura then I probably would've been given the job of guarding it." Zabuza replied. "I have to ask though, what are you getting out of this?"

"I'll get a completed mission, my team gets out of this in one piece and most importantly I get to save the two people who made me who I am." Tense minutes passed as Zabuza and Naruto looked at each other.

"Alright kid, you've got a deal for now. To pull this off, we'd still have to fight on the bridge and make it look convincing. Anything less then that and your whole plan falls apart. If anything changes leave a message where you met Haku this morning and if this turns out to be some sort of trap, none of your team will live to see another day." Naruto smirked.

"You don't have to worry about that, I never go back on my word. There's one little thing I forgot to mention."

"Which is?"

"No-one else knows about my future stuff and they don't know I came here to make a deal." Naruto answered sheepishly.

"Ugh, kid you're insane." Zabuza groaned. "You've made a deal with a missing-nin without clearing it with your squad leader, how am I supposed to know he'll go along with your plan?"

"Have a bit of faith."

"Faith isn't worth shit when your life's on the line."

"So you don't have faith that Haku would save your life?"

"That's not faith, that's loyalty."

"But you're putting faith in the belief that she'd stay loyal to you." Naruto let out a sigh. "I'll need to get back soon otherwise Kakashi-Sensei will do one of two things, either he'll come looking for me or he'll send the back-up that came. No matter which way it is it won't help the situation, just for once have a little trust in someone other then yourself and Haku."

"…Alright, I'll give you a chance but if I don't hear from you in three days then I'll assume you've failed and the deal's off. Clear?"

"Crystal."

"One final question, as a show of trust. Who's your back-up?"

"Anko Mitarashi."

"Orochimaru's apprentice?"

"Former apprentice, if she ever gets the chance then she'd make a pair of snake skin boots out of him with a belt and accessories to match. After that she'd go to the Inuzuka kennels and walk through every piece of dog shit she could find."

With that said the last think Naruto heard was Zabuza laugh and nod to Haku as his world went black. When he came too he was back in the clearing with an ice mirror floating above him, in it he could see Haku in her full hunter garb.

"If Zabuza is hurt in any way through this deal then everyone you care for will die before your eyes and you will live with the knowledge that their blood in on your hands." The mirror shattered into pieces as clusters of senbon imbedded themselves in the ground around his neck and just below his groin, piercing the fabric of his pants.

"I'm so dead if this goes wrong." Naruto breathed out as he pulled the senbon out of his pants before making his way to Tazuna's house thinking about how he was going to get Kakashi to go with his plan. Hopefully Anko would follow Kakashi's lead and not throw a spanner in the works.

As he came into sight of the house Kakashi appeared in front of him.

"Where have you been?" The Jonin asked.

"Gaining a couple of allies but you're not going to like how I've done it."

"Allies?" Kakashi sighed. "I've put this off hoping it could wait until the Hokage could be present but now you've force my hand. Something's been different about you since the bell test, I've left it alone while I've tried to figure out what's going on myself but now I ordering you to tell me. What brought on this change?"

"It'd take too long to explain properly but for now let's just say I know things."

"Not good enough Naruto, this is a life of death situation. I'm responsible for your life along with everyone else's involved in this mission, you're going to tell me everything, now!"

"Kakashi-Sensei, I'm telling you it'll take too long to explain properly. Hell, I'm not even sure I can explain it properly, I don't even know what's happening to me. All I know is that during the bell test I suddenly had memories of things that hadn't happened yet." Kakashi's eyebrow raised sceptically. "I'm serious. You were in a Genin team with Obito Uchiha and Rin Nohara, your Sharingan was originally Obito's and Rin died by jumping in front of your Chidori after being turned into a Jinchūriki for the Sanbi."

"You could've read that in my file, you've proved capable of sneaking into classified areas."

"Okay, something that won't be in your file. You've got a mole on the left side of your face, just under your lips. All your shinobi profiles show you wearing a mask and there's no way I could spy on you without you knowing, at least not yet." Kakashi's visible eye bore into Naruto as he thought through what the blonde had just said. "Hanare of Jōmae Village won't be in your file either, will she? Or how about something only a few people know, like who my parents are? Would that convince you? After I found out I was actually surprised that more people didn't see the connection to my dad at least. I mean I am the spitting image of the Fourth Hokage and my last name is my mom's. Kushina Uzumaki, former Jinchūriki of the Kyūbi, and Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, are my parents and they died sealing the Kyūbi in me. They passed their will and dreams on to me, they placed their faith in me to make this world a better place and I intend to do that. I'd rather do it with your help but I'll do without if I have to."

"Just who are you?" Kakashi asked after a full minute of silence.

"I'm still Naruto Uzumaki, the same unpredictable knucklehead ninja you know and love. It's just that I'm the Seventh Hokage of Konohagakure as well, or at least I will be some day."

"So not the Fifth?"

"No, I tried but apparently I wasn't ready and there's a height requirement." Naruto smirked, Kakashi let out a small chuckle before growing serious again.

"We'll deal with this when we return to the village, right now I need to know what you mean by allies."

"First, I want you to promise that you'll let me finish talking before your react."

"I'm really not going to like this am I?"

"Not in the slightest but it needed to be done."

"Why did it need to be done?"

"I…don't think I should tell you." Kakashi frowned. "It's not that I don't want to, I do, it's just…you know those movies where someone tells someone their future and makes things worse, it's kind of like that. Let's just say that I'm making some pre-emptive strikes against a future opponent without him realising."

"Very well, now who have you made an alliance with?"

"Zabuza."

"Naruto," Kakashi started but Naruto stopped him.

"Let me finish. In return for helping us stop Gato I told him he could take however much he wanted from Gato's vault as long as he left enough for the people here to recover. It's a win-win, we get a completed mission, Nami is free from Gato, Zabuza gets his payday and we all get out of this alive."

"And what exactly is the plan to stop Gato?"

"We stage a fight on the bridge, then when Gato turns up with his thugs to kill us all we take him down. Zabuza said we need to make it convincing so it's probably a good idea not to tell Sasuke or Sakura about it."

"Why?"

"Sasuke can't act, you should've seen him in the infiltration lessons at the Academy. He couldn't even pass as a kid his own age."

"And Sakura?"

"She can act but she's still fangirling a bit and would probably tell Sasuke what's happening."

"Aren't you worried they might get killed?"

"No, assign Sakura to keep guard on Tazuna and Sasuke won't be able to take on Haku."

"Haku?"

"Crap…, Haku works with Zabuza. Really fast and uses senbon to attack pressure points, doesn't like killing or at least that's the way I remember it."

"The Hunter-nin that took Zabuza away, I knew something wasn't right about that."

"Yeah, that was Haku."

"Anything else?"

"I've got three days to convince you to go along with the deal, if I haven't left a message for Zabuza before the deadline ends he's assuming the deals off and he's coming for Tazuna. What do I tell him?" Kakashi studied Naruto's face, even revealing his Sharingan to make sure it actually was Naruto.

"I'll think this over and you can give them an answer tomorrow. Don't mention your 'future knowledge' to anyone, I'll think of someway of explaining this 'alliance' to Anko if we go through with it. Until then, get back in the house and eat something."

"Yes, Kakashi-Sensei." Naruto walked past the Jonin and made his way towards Tazuna's house.

"Naruto." Kakashi called after him, causing him to pause and look back over his shoulder. "Everything you've done up to now, bothering me to more training for the team, trusting Killer Bee, knowing about my father, all of the reasons, half-truths and excuses it's all because of this 'future knowledge' of yours isn't it? There's something bad coming isn't there?" Naruto didn't answer, only turning his head back to face forward and continue on his way to the house. "I thought as much." Kakashi sighed, turning to follow. "The fact you won't say anything tells me if must be really bad."

 _You have no idea._ Naruto thought as he put his hand on the door handle. "I'll explain what I can when we get back home and talk to the old man, for now I just need you to trust me." Without waiting for an answer Naruto opened the door and was immediately put into a headlock by Anko.

"Where have you been Blondie?! This is unknown territory, you don't go wandering off on your own and if you do you let your superior officers know where and for how long." Anko shouted, reaching for Naruto's arm she was about to snap it when Kakashi put a hand on her shoulder.

"Calm down Anko, there's no need to break his arm. Besides that's a Shadow Clone, the real Naruto's hiding behind Tsunami." Anko looked between the clone in her grasp and the real Naruto, who was nervously looking around Tsunami's side. Anko quickly flexed her arm and twisted it, snapping the clone's neck in an instant making Naruto pale as the memory came to him and the fact that Anko was coming towards him.

"That's enough Anko." Kakashi said more forcefully, grabbing her arm. "While Naruto has disobeyed orders, we're as much to blame as well, last night neither of us went after him when he left and although you sent Sakura after him one of us still should've followed. There's also the fact that Sakura can't be expected to be able to control someone as…unpredictable as Naruto." Kakashi turned his attention to Naruto. "Get some ration bars and eat, unless you found some wild mushrooms you haven't eaten anything for a while. Stay here and rest, we'll discuss what you do next later, I need to speak with Anko privately first." Kakashi turned to look at the other two members of his team. "Sakura and Sasuke, the two of you are to guard the house until we return." With that being said Kakashi disappeared with Anko in a shunshin.

"So what took you so long picking herbs with that girl? You didn't try anything perverted did you?" Sakura asked.

"Really, that's the first place your brain goes?" Naruto replied as he dug through his bag for his ration bars. "No, I didn't try anything perverted. Why'd you think that anyway?"

"That jutsu you create, it's disgusting and perverted."

"Okay, two things. One, there's nothing disgusting about the female body and two, that is a very effective jutsu designed to disable a male opponent. You've seen what it does to people, Iruka-Sensei and the Old Man were both helpless against it."

"It didn't do anything to Zabuza and I'm not bothered by it." Sasuke said.

"It did, it pissed him off and I've got a few ideas why you don't react to it."

"And those ideas are?"

"Well, the main two are either you're gay or you can only get it up for revenge fantasies." Sasuke's hands clenched into fists as he glared at the blonde.

"You can't say that about Sasuke!" Sakura shouted and made to hit Naruto when Tsunami interrupted.

"No fighting in my house." The dark haired woman said calmly, but the way she said it made Sakura freeze in mid-swing. "And why not ask for an outside opinion? I may not be a ninja but I'm more experienced in the way of the world then the three of you." She tapped Naruto on the shoulder and pointed towards the table, where a meal sat waiting. "I saved some food for you, so please eat."

"You are a goddess in disguise." Naruto said happily, giving Tsunami a quick hug before dashing for the table. "Ration bars taste like hell."

"You're welcome." Tsunami giggled as she moved to sit next to him. "So what's this jutsu that's causing so many problems?"

"Basically I use Henge no jutsu to look like a grown up girl version of me."

"He's forgetting to mention that she's naked." Sakura interrupted.

"Not completely, there's clouds hiding the private bits." Naruto said back.

"I think to give an informed opinion I should see this for myself." Tsunami stated drawing surprised looks from Sakura and Naruto, Sasuke had lost interest in the conversation and was keeping watch from the window.

"Er…, okay." Naruto stood up and took a few steps away from the table. " **Oiroke no Jutsu.** " A puff of smoke hid Naruto from view and when it cleared it showed Naruto standing there in his naked female form with the censoring clouds but he wasn't posing as he usually did.

"You make a very beautiful girl Naruto." Tsunami said as she stood and walked around Naruto, inspecting his/her body. "Long legs, firm rear, perky and bouncy breasts, flawless skin and silky hair. You should be very proud of this body, I can see why it can disable any man you might fight. I'm actually quite jealous, I'd kill to have a body like this."

"Can I change back now?" Naruto asked, feeling self-conscious for the first time while using **Oiroke no Jutsu**.

"Of course, and it's best to eat your food while it's still hot." Tsunami replied. "Now, I can see where you're coming from Sakura but isn't it part of being a ninja to use whatever works to win?" Sakura slowly nodded while Naruto's focus was fully on the food in front of him. "Then I can't understand your problem with Naruto's jutsu, it's effectively the same as how Anko is using her looks to her advantage. I'm sure if Naruto made a jutsu of a naked older version of himself then it would have a similar effect on woman as his female one does on men."

"I, I suppose you're right." Sakura admitted. "But it's still weird."

"There's no denying that." Tsunami agreed with a laugh. "A twelve year old boy suddenly turning into a naked teenage girl isn't something you see every day. It lead to an interesting question though, how does Naruto know what a naked woman looks like?"

A shiver ran down Naruto's spine as he felt two pairs of eyes burning a hole in the back on his head, turning round with grains of rice stuck around his mouth he saw Sakura and Tsunami glaring at him.

"What am I being blamed for now?" He asked.

"How do you know what a naked woman looks like, Naruto?" Tsunami asked in reply.

"Because I live on my own the Old Man gave me the 'talk'." A shudder ran through his body. "There's some things you don't want to hear an old man talk about, not to mention the outdates pictures he used. Some of those women were hairier then his ape summons." Naruto swallowed thickly as he fought the urge to vomit. "Iruka-Sensei explained things better after the sex-ed class in the Academy. I might've been staring into space and rocking during the class, I really can't remember much from then. I just remember Iruka explaining things when it was just the two of us in the room."

"Yeah, thinking back you did look really pale that day. Everyone thought you were sick and wouldn't sit near you." Sakura said.

"Wouldn't have been the first time no-one wanted to sit near me." Naruto muttered as he returned to his food, he knew that Tsunami had heard him because he could feel her eyes on him and the pity she felt for him. He could sense the question she wanted to ask but he wasn't in the mood to answer it, instead he finished his meal then washed and dried his plate. "I'm going outside." He held up a hand when he saw Sakura about to protest. "I won't go far, just need to get some air." After saying that he walked out of the door and climbed to the roof. An hour later Kakashi and Anko appeared next to him, Naruto instinctively leapt to his feet and drew his tonfa as he spun to face them.

"Damn, I owe you twenty." Anko said, her tone halfway between annoyance and approval as she took a couple of notes from her pocket and put them in Kakashi's hand. "Kid might actually be telling the truth, accounting for the slower body that was an experienced shinobi's reaction. I knew there was something up with you Blondie, never would've guessed something like this though."

"Why'd you tell Anko the truth?" Naruto asked Kakashi.

"We're in a dangerous situation, now's not the time to lie. You can trust Anko just as much as you can trust me." Kakashi replied, Naruto spent a second staring at the Jonin before nodding.

"Fine, now what are you two doing sneaking up on me like that?"

"Just a little test." Anko grinned as Naruto glared at her.

"I thought I told you to rest." Kakashi replied.

"I am, your orders were to, and I quote, 'Stay here and rest.' You didn't specify that I had to stay in the house and rest." Naruto slid his tonfa back into their holsters. "Besides I needed to get some fresh air and it doesn't take much energy to keep watch. I take it you've made a decision?"

"We have, you can tell Zabuza we have an agreement. We'll finish this mission in three day time until then we're all going to be training, just in case Zabuza decides to turn against us."

"He won't."

"How do you know that?" Anko asked.

"I just do, I could see it in his eyes. He doesn't want to kill Tazuna anymore then he wants to kill me or the others." Naruto focussed on Kakashi. "Remember what he said, 'women and children are spared.' He's only doing this job cause he needs the money."

"And why does he need money?"

"To help the Kiri rebels." Kakashi and Anko shared a look. "Yeah, I know about the civil war and stuff related to it. I probably know more about it then the two of you. I'll go leave a message for him now so he knows the deal's on but we don't double cross him, once this is finished we all go our separate ways. Alive."

"Future opponent?" Kakashi asked, Naruto just nodded in reply.

"You should tell us everything." Anko said, stopping Naruto as he turned to leave.

"Not going to happen." Naruto replied.

"Now listen here you little brat…" Anko started before Kakashi stepped in front of her. "Out of my way Kakashi, give me five minutes alone with him and I'll have him telling us everything he knows."

"If you tried my furry friend would come out to play and you really don't want that." Naruto said calmly. "I have told you something about your personal future though."

"What are you talking about?"

"Just think back to when we were talking in the tree." Anko paused as she replayed the conversation.

"No." She whispered.

"Yes." Naruto grinned and henged into Anko's futureself. "This is what you'll look like in the future."

"You're wrong. I'd never let myself get like that."

"You become a teacher at the Academy too." Naruto added as he dispelled the transformation.

"Like hell, I'd teach a bunch of brats, I'd die first."

"Well, you don't, so deal with it." As Anko stood there stunned, Naruto turned and jumped off the roof. Kakashi's eye followed him as the blonde ran into the trees before flicking his gaze to look at Anko, who was staring blankly into space while hugging her curves.

"They say knowledge is power and if that's true then Naruto just might be the most powerful person in the world right now." He muttered before starting to wonder what his futureself might be like.

The days that followed saw Team 7 being trained harder then they had before but with Anko and Sakura knowing some Iryō Ninjutsu they could recover quickly. Sakura had asked about why their training had been pushed to a higher level but the only answer she got back was Anko saying she had a feeling shit was about to hit the fan. Kakashi would help at times but Anko had insisted that she could handle the team's training and that he should focus on getting himself back into shape.

Naruto was once again abusing his Shadow Clones to optimize the amount of training he could get and while it wouldn't work for his actual strength or speed, it would increase his skill and experience levels. He was close to completing the Rasengan, he could feel it but he just couldn't get the shell to full stablise, it was only a matter of time though and the thought of having the Rasengan again brought a smile to his face.

Naruto created a small army of Shadow Clones and had them all hidden around and inside Tazuna's house before leaving to go to the bridge. He wasn't going to risk anything happening to Tsunami or Inari and if anything did happen the memory transfer from the clones would alert him and he could send more to help if needed. He'd not seen or heard from Haku or Zabuza since talking to them face to face, all he knew was that they'd gotten his message as he'd gone back a few hours later to check and found the note missing. Naruto just hoped that they stuck to their deal, that's not to say he didn't have faith in them but there was always a risk that they'd change their mind.

So now he found himself on the bridge and a thick mist starting to blanket the area, he helped Sasuke and Sakura clear the builders as Kakashi and Anko stayed close to Tazuna. As the last of the builders left the bridge Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke formed a line in front of Tazuna as Kakashi and Anko stepped forward.

"You've got one last chance." Zabuza said, while still hidden in the mist. "Hand over the bridge builder or all of you die."

"You've got one last chance." Naruto shouted back. "Leave or…" Naruto's words died in his throat as he felt steel pressed against his neck.

"Or what?" Zabuza whispered in his ear, having appeared behind him. "That loud mouth of yours just got you killed." Time seemed to freeze as all anyone could do was watch as Kubikiribōchō sliced across Naruto's throat.

 **That's it for now.**

 **Let me know what you think.**

 **Until Next Time**

 **Basic Trainer**


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